Boundless: The Beginning
by TheOmega360
Summary: (DISCONTINUED. CURRENTLY BEING REWRITTEN)
1. Prologue I

**Boundless: The Beginning**

By TheOmega360

 **AN: This is the beginning to a mega multi-crossover idea that I've had stuck in my head for a few years, but never knew how to get it out there. Then I remembered that fan fiction was a thing. So here it is. Now, this is my first attempt at writing fan fiction, so no hating. Criticism is fine, but do it with respect. This fan fic is rated M for language, violence, gore, sexual themes, and quite possibly some lemons later on. Don't worry; I'll give you a heads up in case you want to skip it. Also, NONE OF THE FRANCHISES THAT ARE MENTIONED IN THIS FAN FIC ARE MINE! THEY BELONG TO THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS! The only things that I do own are myself, and any OC's that I put in here.**

Prologue I-Rejecting Reality

 _What is reality? Why do you deny it?_

I'm going to be honest. Whatever world you live in, whatever life you have, whatever you think is real or logical or a bunch of bull shit; if and when you meet me in person, all of that is going to be shattered. Your life will never be normal again, and your entire fucking world will be rocked. I'm dead serious. The reason I say this, is because no matter where I go, I either get into trouble, or it comes looking for me. If you meet me or even become friends with me, you will never go back to a normal life. Now don't get the wrong idea, this does not under any circumstance mean that I am a bad person. I can grantee you that I am one of the nicest guys you'll ever meet. It's just that…the life I live is something that's both extraordinary, and at times a little terrifying. Why, you ask? I'll get to that, but first a little introduction.

My name is Andrew Hindle. And I am not human. Well, actually, I used to be human, but due to some…events in my past that kinda stemmed off from my stubbornness led up to me becoming…well, both who and _what_ (emphasis on the what part) I am. And to explain exactly what I am…that's not something I can summarize into a few sentences, so I guess I'll start at the beginning, during my normal human days. You may want to sit down, because this story is long and not for the feint of heart. It gets….kinda dark latter on. You've been warned.

The last time I had a regular human body, I was around the age of 21. I lived in a family of four, myself included. There was my mother, Carol, my father, Tony, and my brother, Leo. My mother worked for a law affirm group in Columbia. Can't really remember the name but, she was a really hard worker and incredibly smart. All her employers and co-workers really appreciated how hard working and diligent she was, as well as her talents. That being said, she sometimes worked a little too hard, and was very prone to stress. Especially when she was helping Josh and I with school and college. I always got into a lot of arguments with her about…well basically everything. But I would be lying if I said she didn't raise me well. She was a damn good mother, the best mother that I could ever have in my life, despite the fact that she annoyed the hell out of me in my adolescence. She loved both Josh and I unconditionally, even when we drove her up the wall, which was quite often.

My dad was a little different. He was not as serious as mom, but he was far from lazy. He was definitely more relaxed and laid back. He worked two jobs. One of his jobs was working at an office branch for the banking company Wells Fargo. His other job was in the evenings on every other night. Technically I'm not supposed to talk about it, but considering the state that my world is currently in (which you'll find out soon), I highly doubt that's a concern. The other job he worked for was basically a depression/suicide hotline. He got calls from people who were going through a tough time in their life, thinking of suicide, or trying to persuade a friend or family member not to commit suicide. As you can probably imagine, having to deal with those types of people is not a pleasant experience. Yet it never seemed to bother Dad too much. Either he was used to it, or he just hid it really well. Regardless, working two jobs really tired him out, and almost every day he would say to me, "Andrew, I'm tired."

My brother's story is something out of a miracle. When he was born, he was born kicking and screaming non-stop, and also a little too early. His lungs were dangerously under developed and he could barely breathe. He was put in the incubator for about three months, and in that time (I was young and had the brain and attention span the size of a one megabyte flash drive) I kinda had completely forgotten that I had a brother. Much to the doctor's disbelief, Leo managed to pull through. They were all amazed, saying that he should've been dead. It even got my mother's doctor; Dr. Maggot, to say to her, "There's somebody up there looking out for you." My mother replied by crying tears of joy. Like I said, the story of a miracle. And what's even more amazing is that despite his underdeveloped lungs and the asthma that came with it, he was an incredible track runner. I'm serious, if he wanted to and if he practiced hard enough, he could've been an Olympian. However, that's not what he wanted in his life, which in my opinion is a very noble decision. Fame and glory can mess with a person's head, and I don't think he wanted that. As for our relationship as brothers…it was like oil and fire. He and I liked different things, and we always argued about a lot of stupid stuff. He thought I was weird and I always argued that with, "there's no such thing as a normal person," which is true. Still, I can't imagine what my life would be like without him. Yeah he's got a short fuse, but he's still a really good guy.

And now there's me. Where do I even begin? Well, as a child, I've always been fascinated by video cameras, I loved video games and music, I always enjoyed reading the dialogues in books out loud in different character voices, and above all else, I loved music. One Christmas day, my parents gave me an kid's video recording and editing software. I tinkered around with it a bit and I found that I really enjoyed the creativity that came with making videos. So much so, that I decided to take classes in Digital Media Production, and eventually that became my college major. I was excited to see just how far I could go with my talents. My dream was to have a multi career in video editing, audio mixing, and voice acting, music composition for video games, and quite possibly become and indie game developer, one that's completely self-taught. It was a dream that I was sure would come to fruition. Until after my third year of college. That's when things started to take a turn for the worst.

All of my life, I've been plagued by the memory of the many mistakes I've made in my past. Mistakes that complicated my relationship with my mother, mistakes that nearly got me thrown in jail, mistakes that affected my GPA to where it was extremely difficult to get more money for college, and mistakes that just made me look like an idiot. You know the saying, "if I knew then what I knew now?" I'd like to add a little, "I'd go back and do it better if I could" to the end of that. I always wondered how my life would be like if I didn't make those dumb mistakes. But I figured if I did go back and fix them, I wouldn't have learned anything. So I decided to just keep going forward and improving upon myself. That is of course until my parents got into a fatal car accident.

Someone at a four way intersection that had a stoplight decided to deliberately run a red light in their lane while it was green for the other. My parents were unlucky enough to be in the very front of the green light lane, and got hit by that asshole, really hard. The police went through my mother's contact list on her phone and called me while I was tidying up the house for my brother's high school graduation party. When I got the call, the police told me that both of my parents had been in a serious car accident. I took a moment to mentally process this information.

It didn't seem real. It couldn't have been real. I asked the officer if he had the right number and the right parent's, and he replied by reading their names and my name and phone number off of their drivers license and my mother's phone contacts. I hung up after hearing this, taking a second to gather my thoughts and emotions. I still didn't believe it was real. Or rather, I didn't want to believe it was real. But if what the police officer had said was really true, then I had to see for myself. I called back the police officer and asked him which hospital my parents were being taken to. He said that the closest one was the Fredrick Memorial Hospital. My heart sank after hearing that.

Out of all the hospitals in all of Maryland, the Frederick Memorial was the one I trusted the least since the doctors there nearly botched the removal of my father's kidney stone a few years back. But it was the closest like he said. I quickly called Leo, told him the situation and to drop whatever he was doing and meet me at the hospital as soon as he could. I then rushed out to my car and drove as fast as I could to the hospital, while trying to avoid getting pulled over for speeding.

When I got there, I was met with a horrible sight. My mom and dad were both comatose, bloody and badly torn up from the crash. Their bodies were covered with casts and bandages. The doctors said that although their heartbeats were still active, it was very slow and unsteady. They weren't sure how long they were going to be out. He said if they survive they might never be able to walk again due their lower spines being fractured seriously. When Leo arrived on the scene and heard of this, all he could do was sit down in a chair and cry. I wanted to cry too, but tried to hold it back, because I didn't want to do it in public. I hated being seen crying in public. And I figured as the older brother I should be the strongest of the both of us. But right there at that time, it was really hard to do that.

When our Godparents, Aunt Dian and Uncle Carl got word of this, they drove down to the hospital to pick Leo and I up the next day. We had spent the night there, not being able to bring ourselves to leave Mom and Dad behind. Reluctantly, Leo and I went back to our house to pack our things for the indefinite stay at our Godparents. The indefinite part was the part that scared me the most.

Our Godparents lived in Harrisonburg, Virginia, the same city that I went to college in. After Leo and I had arrived and unpacked our things I shut myself in my room, and finally let out all of the tears that I had held inside me at the hospital. I prayed and prayed and prayed to God that Mom and Dad would live, giving me some brief hope that they would live. But whenever I visited them in the hospital, the results would always be the same. They would still be in a comma, their vitals struggling to keep them alive. Doubt and depression worked its way into my heart faster than Josh could drive on a fast lane.

A month past, and nothing changed. My prayers were being unanswered. Why? Why weren't my parents being saved? Did God not care about them? Did He want them to die? I was never much of a religious person, but I always did have faith. And right now, that faith was starting to break. I didn't want my parents to die. I still needed them in my life. I needed to be able to talk to someone who could give me advice on how to live on my own. My mind at the time hadn't fully matured into an adult's. I was still used to living like a teenager. I knew what my life goals were, but I had no idea how to get to them. No, it's not that I had no idea. I guess I just didn't believe in myself to plan on my own.

Pretty soon I grew really impatient waiting for my parents to wake up. If they were going to die and no force of nature on this planet would save them…part of me just refused to let that happen. If nothing was going to save them, then I would. Still, I wasn't a doctor, and I wasn't really knowledgeable in medicine or biology. So I decided to try and save my parents in a rather…unusual way. See, even if I did find a way to get my parents out of their comma, it was highly unlikely that the doctors would listen to someone who wasn't a professional, and even if they did and my parents did wake up, the chances of them being able to walk again were very slim. So instead of finding a cure through medicine, I decided the best course of action was to prevent the accident from ever happening. Meaning of course, time travel.

When I went back for my final year of college, I decided that I would have to temporarily put my digital media career on hold and temporarily change my major to studying quantum physics and mechanics. Normally I would hate to study this stuff, as it required a lot of math and equations (then again, so did becoming an indie game developer; that's got a lot of coding sequences and physics), but I was determined to do this to save my parents, and in turn quite possibly change the world.

Every night I would stay up late, running equations through my head trying to figure out how to make time travel possible. The first thing I needed to do was to figure out how to literally cut a hole in time and space, create some kind of warped energy field or portal that would allow mass and matter to safely pass through to another time period. The best possible force that I thought could make that work was the force that's created when an atom is split. In other words, an atomic explosion, said to be even more powerful a nuclear one. The problem was figuring out how split just a single atom since they are impossible to see with the naked eye, and then harnessing the resulting explosion to bend time and space.

It then dawned on me that I would have to learn a little bit about engineering in order to develop the tools necessary for my goal. Within a few weeks of little sleep and little food (yeah, I was in a pretty dark place), I had finally developed a type of microscope that is able to extract and atom from just about any type object, even living organisms. I decided to dub this device as, "The Extractor."

I experimented with the Extractor by removing an atom from a paper clip. Immediately there was a problem. Since everything in the world is made up of atoms, removing just one atom from an object was like trying to remove matter from mass. With just one atom gone, the entire structure of the paper clip broke apart and disintegrated into nothing. The one atom that I had extracted however was still intact. I then decided that, until I solved the disintegration problem, removing atoms from organisms was probably a bad idea. As long as I experimented with inanimate objects, nothing bad should happen.

Now I had to figure out how to manipulate the resulting explosion to bend time and space. The force that would be strongest to do so would be gravity. If I could create a field of gravity that compressed the atomic explosion down to a small enough size that the blast would cave in on itself, resulting in what would be similar to a black hole. It took me about half a month, but I developed my own gravity manipulation device. It was a giant metallic ring that's about twice the size of a hula-hoop, resting on an iron pedestal. Capable of increasing and decreasing the gravitational force within the ring, and able to control polarity (in order for the atoms that I extract to stay afloat in the center of the ring so I could split them using mechanical scalpels that I specifically designed for cutting an atom), I decided to name this device, "Gateway." Appropriate, considering it's purpose.

And so, with problem number one out of the way, problem number two was controlling and choosing the destination of the time period. That proved to be a little difficult, and I was stumped for about a week. Until one night, when I decided to get some much needed rest, a thought occurred to me: Memories. I thought that the best way to control the desired time period would be through someone's memories. And since the time period I wanted was within my past, I figured this was the best way to go. It's not like I planned to release this stuff to the public anyways. I'd never hear the end of it from the media if I did.

The science behind the human brain was still undergoing research, meaning that our society had barely scratched the surface of understanding how our minds work. According to what was known, we used ten percent of our brains when we were awake, and the other ninety percent while we were asleep. Most of that had to do with dreams. The part of the brain I was focused on was memory recollection.

I have a lot of memories from my life, but a lot of them I've forgotten over time. But that didn't mean the memories weren't still in my head. Based on the research that I did, the average human brain has the capacity to store over one hundred and thirty years worth of memories. Sadly, human lifespans are incredibly short. We're lucky if we get to one hundred years old, and even then we can't remember every single memory over the years. But just because we can't remember them, doesn't mean that they aren't dormant in our minds.

So I began to develop a type of brain scanning device that would be able to access one hundred percent of the brains memories and use them as a source code for determining the time period of the destination. If someone had wanted go back into the time of the Revolutionary War, they'd need someone who was still alive from that time period. The device I designed was just a simple black headband that reads and accesses brain waves, transmits the data to my Mac laptop that runs a software program that I specifically designed to operate Gateway. I then use the software to search the space that Gateway is connected to for the time period that correlates to the data in my mind. This process was extremely tricky to figure out, and it took me a month and a half to perfect it, but finally I had actually built the world's first working time machine.

But then I hit a fatal snag.

The final problem I had was trying to figure out how to send solid objects through gate way and have them arrive intact at their destination. I first practiced on some apples, sending them only a few minutes back in time to an abandoned warehouse in Harrisonburg, which is actually where I had set up all of my equipment. But when the apple appeared it had been mutated into an unrecognizable pile of mush and guts. Not to mention it smelled terrible. I tried it with multiple other objects, even rocks (those came out looking like some kind of giant kidney stone) and kept revising codes and equations to make a successful transport, but to no avail. The results were always the same.

I was actually just about to give up until one day, when I was getting ready for my classes, I got an email from someone who preferred to remain anonymous. The subject read: "I can help you with your little 'project.'" I froze when I read that. I could've been my paranoia, but by "project," I automatically thought about Gateway. Did someone know what I was doing? No, impossible, I never told anyone about it, not even my brother or my best friend Bryce. They would've object to the idea and then try to persuade me not to go through with it. Still, the fact that _someone_ had sent me this email disturbed me greatly. I immediately deleted the email, thinking it was probably just spam, and tried to trace the email address, getting results saying that it didn't exist. Relaxing a little, I decided that the email was really just spam after all.

Until I got a text message on my phone about the email later in the day.

The message said, "If the email I sent to you came across as spam, then I apologize. However, I can assure you, that message is not malicious. Rather, it is an act of charity. I wish to assist you in your little self-project. Go back to your email and you will find another copy of the message. Please read it."

My heart skipped a couple of beats. There was no way this was a coincidence. Whoever sent me that email had to be the same guy that sent me this text. But that wasn't what scared me. What got me was that somehow, a guy I never met, a guy that's probably been spying on me if he knew about Gateway had both my phone number and my email address. I stood outside on the college campus, with a mixture of fear and irritation on my face, staring at the message. I had the urge to call the number on the text message to find out who this guy is. And after a few seconds of the debating weather or not I should, I did.

The dial tone rang a few times. And then…

"Hello?" The voice was male. It had a deep tone and a slight German accent.

"Who the hell is this?" I demanded.

"…Am I correct in assuming that you are Andrew Hindle?"

If I didn't figure out that he knew my contact info, I might have been shocked that he new my name. However, I wasn't. I was still a little scared, but also kinda pissed. Something about the way this man talked really gave me a bad vibe. I didn't like it at all.

"Answer my question. Who the hell are you and how the hell do you know my name and contact info?"

"Now, now," the man said, calmly. "There's no need to get upset. I understand that you're a little suspicious of me right now, and that's perfectly fine. I'd be a little worried if you weren't."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, irritably.

"Nothing important at the moment. Now, you asked me a couple of questions, yes?"

"Yeah, I did, you going to answer them, or are we going to beat around the bush all day?" I was really starting to lose patience.

"Calm yourself, boy," he said. "Unfortunately, I am only able to answer truthfully to one of your questions. There is no need for you to know who I am, and I would rather not lie about my identity to you. But in time, very soon I might add, we shall meet. As for how I know you…well, I've been watching you for quite some time now. In fact, I have my eyes on you even as we speak."

As soon as he said that last sentence, I frantically began looking around, trying to find anyone who looked out of place on the campus.

"No, no, don't bother looking, you won't find me. However, I can assure you I mean no harm. I swear on God's word."

"And what exactly makes you think that I believe you?" I replied. "I've seen way to many movies to know that mysterious guys like you, who somehow, inexplicably I might add, know some random person, which in this case is me, always leads to a hell of a bad day."

A brief moment of silence.

"Fair enough," the man said. "If it puts you at ease, then allow me to say this; I'm not here of my own volition, only of my duty."

"Duty?" I questioned. "Wait, you're working for someone?"

"Indeed. And He is very interested in your work."

Great, as if one guy spying on me wasn't bad enough. Now there was the possibility that some rogue faction was watching me.

"Yeah, no offense buddy, but that's kinda having the opposite effect on me right now."

"Apologies," he calmly replied. "But I can assure you that I mean no harm, and only wish to assist. As George Washington once said, 'I cannot tell a lie.' A saying that I take to heart."

I could feel a migraine coming on. "Okay, look just…what do you want?" I said, pinching the bridge of my nose if frustration.

"Only to see you succeed in your little project."

I could only assume that by project, he meant Gateway. I was really hoping that wasn't the case, but I had to be sure.

"Define 'project.'" I demanded, bluntly.

"You are working on a time machine called 'Gateway' correct?" That's what his response was.

Shit.

"How the hell do you know about that?" My dislike for this guy was really starting to grow now.

"As I've said before, I've been watching you for quite some time now."

This guy was watching me during the time I was constructing Gateway?! Or maybe even before that?!

"And what if I don't? What then?" I asked, nervously.

"Nothing," the man said. "We'll leave you be if you decide to stop. Though I doubt that will be your decision. After all, you wish to save your parents, do you not?"

Now I was pissed. This asshole had been keeping an eye on me ever since my parent's when into a comma?

Just who the fuck was this guy?!

"Now then," he continued. "The email I sent contains something that will allow you to successfully solve the problem you are currently having. Read it carefully and thoroughly. It is a little complex to understand. Should any issues arise, feel free to let me know and I will inform my master. Now, if you'll pardon me, I have a meeting to go to, and I do not wish to be late. Good-bye, Hindle, and best of luck to you."

He hung up after that.

I just stood there motionless, trying to gather my thoughts. I had a whole bunch of questions crammed inside my head. None of which I'd get an answer anytime soon.

Who was that guy?

Why has he been watching me?

Why does he want me to finish Gateway?

Who was he working for?

And finally, why should I trust anything he said?

Was he really just going to leave me be if I decided not to continue with Gateway? Part of me doubted that. Even if he did say that he wasn't a liar, and he did sound like he meant it, I wasn't about to willingly believe that. And who knows how many other associates his boss had? Just because this guy claimed that he was doing his job doesn't mean that others will follow along. Plus there was also the fact that the head honcho himself might come looking for me.

And then there's the fact that this guy knew who I was. Not to mention my parents. Going by logic, I could only assume that meant he knew about my brother, Aunt Dian and Uncle Carl, the rest of my family and my closest friends. Although the guy did say that he had no intention of harming me, he never said anything about leaving my friends and family uninvolved. It was a strong possibility that he would probably use them leverage if I didn't cooperate.

So it came down to two choices: Finish Gateway, and probably end up with the mysterious man take it and use either it or me for something else, or scrap Gateway all together, and then wait around for some horrific ultimatum.

I let out a deep sigh. No matter how I looked at the situation there were too many variables, too many unknowns. There was no way I could make a decision without assuming a worst-case scenario. And personally, out of the two options I had, that worst- case scenario was starting to look like the latter. So reluctantly, I came to a decision.

I was going to finish Gateway.

 **AN: Okay so that's the end of the first part of the prologue. The second part will be out soon and I promise it will be longer than this. Then we can get down to where the story starts for real. Please let me know what you think.**


	2. Prologue II: A Cruel Fate

AN: Here it is! And holy hell is it long! But exciting! Oh and just to let you know: Please don't judge me. I am a Christian through and through. This is purely fiction. It's not real. None of it is. After all, works like Dogma and Legion exist, and in Asura's Wrath, the final boss was in the form of Buda, which basically played the role of God in that world. Fictions of grandeur beings being slain has never clouded my faith, and neither should it for you. I know what's real. And so, enjoy the second prologue.

Prologue II-A Cruel Fate

 _Sometimes the power of just one man will be enough to change the world…_

 _Or destroy it._

About a week had past since I called the mysterious man. I had made the choice to go ahead with the completion of Gateway, so I decided to humor the guy and check out the email he sent. After doing a quick check to see that the email had no malicious content, I decided to open it. The man said that what ever was in the message would help me with the solid matter problem. Okay, well "assist" might be a bit of an understatement.

When I looked at the email, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Attached was an extremely complex equation that I thought to be impossible. I nearly gave myself a headache trying to figure it out! I kept running calculations over and over both in my head and on various sheets of paper that were scattered across the room, and much to my surprise, I got the results of the mock test data that I performed on my computer.

Probability of success: 100%

My mind was blown. With this equation, the problem of being able to send solid matter through Gateway was completely solved! As soon as I made sure that the equation was foolproof, I quickly ran back to the abandoned warehouse and coded the equation into Gateway. I set the time destination for five minutes in the past in the same warehouse I was in. And sure enough, the apple that I had thrown into Gateway came back out intact and safe to eat. With that, I packed up my laptop and the Extractor and headed back to my dorm. Tomorrow was the weekend, so I could sleep in to catch up on a lot of sleep that I had skipped out on while finishing preparations for Gateway.

…

Today was it. I was going to activate Gateway for real this time and save my parents from the accident.

…

Well, I wanted to anyways. But doubt still lingered in my heart. I still was unsure of what that mysterious man wanted with Gateway. There's no way that his goal was just to see me succeed, there had to be some ulterior motive. But then again, if everything went well and I did stop the accident, Gateway wouldn't exist anymore because the accident would never have happened and I would've never had a reason to build it.

That being said, the way that man spoke…it was almost as though he was wanting…no EXPECTING me to finish. One of the things the guy said to me kept echoing in my mind.

" _But in time, very soon I might add, we shall meet."_

I couldn't really put into words why, but the more I thought about it, the more is calm, assuring tone convinced me that I would eventually meet this mysterious man, regardless of if I stopped the accident or not, or even if Gateway was successful for that matter. It was these thoughts that were going on in my head that made me very, and I mean VERY hesitant on activating Gateway.

At a loss of weather or not to proceed, I decided to call Fredrick Memorial and check up on how my parents were doing. I called Doctor Thomas Daniels, the doctor who was in charge of my parent's health.

"Hello, this is Doctor Thomas Daniels, how may I help?"

"Hey, Doc, it's Andrew." I said in a bit of a worried/friendly tone.

"Ah, hey there kid," the doctor replied, immediately recognizing my name and voice. "How have you been hanging."

"Stressed, tired, exhausted. Barely getting enough sleep with all the work I have to do." That actually wasn't too far from the truth, especially with Gateway in the mix.

"Heh, typical life of a college student," he sighed, sounding nostalgic. "Those were the days."

We both laughed a little at that.

"Anyways," I said, getting back on track. "Uh, how are Mom and Dad doing?"

There was a bit of a pause. Then the doctor sighed. "Well, they're still in a comma but their still alive. Good news is that their vitals are slowing catching up to them, and right now we're planning on surgery to fix their spines. But the process could still take a few months."

I breathed a sigh of relief. That was good news indeed.

"Okay, good," I said. "That's a huge amount of worry off of my shoulders." Then a thought just occurred to me. "Hey, Daniels?" I asked. "Is it possible for two people to be in a comma for as long as this. Wouldn't it be more probable for one of them to wake up before the other?"

There were a few seconds of silence before he answered.

"Well," Daniels said. "You do have a point. Although there have been some cases in the past, very rare I might add, where a patient was put into a coma for nearly a year, it is even more rare for two people to be a prolonged comma for a few months at the same time. I admit it is a little…odd. It's almost like, I don't know, someone or something doesn't want them to wake up."

That scared me a little. Is it possible that the same mysterious man was somehow keeping my parents sedated so that I would have a reason to continue Gateway?

"Hey, can I ask you another question? One that's a little more…out there?"

"Well, sure," Replied the doctor.

"Do you, y'know, ever get the feeling that you're being watched by someone…?"

There were a few moments of tense silence as soon as I asked that.

"…Where is this coming from?" Daniels asked, almost sounding like he wanted to avoid this topic.

"I don't know, it's just…it's just…ah, how do I say this?" I wasn't sure weather or not to bring Daniels into my problems. "Lately there have been some…really weird things happening lately. I don't know…probably just me being paranoid."

"Have you been having chronic nightmares about something related to this?" asked Daniels.

"Y-yeah, I guess you could say that." I lied. It was probably best not to mention the mysterious man to him. "I don't know. I've been under a lot of stress recently and…maybe all those bad dreams are just starting to get to me."

"Well, whatever the case, I recommend you see a psychiatrist to deal with that. It'll help settle your stress a little." The doc sounded like he wanted to wrap this up quickly for some reason. "Well, listen, I have to go. I've more patients to attend to than just your parents, but I promise, we're doing everything we can."

"Thanks, Doc." I said.

"Take care of yourself, kid." He hung up afterwards.

The doc was right. It was kinda strange that both of my parents were both asleep at the same time for this long. I would've figured that at least either one of them (Mom probably, since Dad likes to sleep a lot) would've woken up by now. But what Daniels had said about it…

" _It's almost like, I don't know, someone or something doesn't want them to wake up."_

Call me crazy, but that sounded way too specific to have been an example. Was there something going on at the hospital that he didn't know about? Something that might be connected to the mysterious man? And there was also something about Daniels's tone in that last bit of the conversation felt off for some reason. I couldn't really figure out why, but it seemed like he didn't want to talk to me as soon as I asked him that random question. I decided to shake that thought off, it probably wasn't that important. I was probably just being paranoid or thinking too much.

Boy was I wrong.

Still though, if my parents have been in a coma for these past three months, there's no telling how long it would be until they woke up. And I certainly didn't want them to end up like a certain person on the Internet whom I idolized in the art of creativity. So without any further hesitation, I started up gateway.

I first set the gravity inside the ring to about a thousand times Earth's normal gravity. Then I took the atom of what was like the twelfth paper clip I molecularly destroyed, and placed it in the center of the ring, where its polarity was manipulated to float in the middle of the ring. I then activated the bite-sized scalpels and vertically split the atom vertically down the middle.

No matter how many times I've done it, the resulting explosion always gives me a frickin' heart attack. The explosion was loud, and almost reached the edges of Gateway's ring, but the gravity kept the explosion in place and slowly began to press down on it, shrinking the resulting blast. Soon, the explosion completely caved in on itself resulting in a faint "pop."

There was then a loud BANG as a miniature black hole appeared inside of Gateway and remained suspended inside the ring. There was a small whirling sound as some the air around the vortex was being sucked in. Both excited and nervous, I leaned over my laptop wrapped the mind-reading headband, which I decided to name "Mind Link," around my head and let the Gateway Software search my mind. I concentrated hard on the date I wanted to travel to. July 17th, 2015. Sure enough, the software responded and picked up on my memory and began searching the void inside the black hole for matching time period. This was it! It was working! I was going to save my parents!

That was when disaster struck. And my life was forever changed.

Suddenly the image on my laptop's monitor started to glitch. It crackled with electricity and CPU started stuttering.

"No, no, no, no, don't you dare do this to me!"

Someone was hacking my computer! But how?! There was no Internet connection here! I attempted to take counter measures to shut down my computer, but the second I touched my keyboard, I got shocked with a charge of electricity that spewed forth all of a sudden. I couldn't touch my computer with out getting electrocuted! In a few seconds, my computer screen went black. I thought it had shut down. But then a message appeared on the screen.

Congratulations, boy. You have served your purpose well. Now God's work can finally begin.

"What the hell…?" That didn't make any sense.

Suddenly, my computer flashed back to the desktop with the Gateway software still open. Everything looked okay, except for the fact that the destination in Gateway had changed.

Destination: Error. Unknown.

And before I had time to think about what that meant, the wind in the warehouse suddenly started to pick up. Gateway had started to act up now too! It was searching for the unknown destination. I would've shut it off, but the wind intake was so strong I was scared that I might get caught in the vortex and then ending up God knows where.

Suddenly the wind stopped, and Gateway calmed down a bit. But the vortex inside Gateway had opened up into what appeared to be some kind of pitch-black void. I was both curious and confused as to what the hell just happened here, and moved a little closer to Gateway to see what was going on. It didn't look like there was anything special about where it was connected. That is until all these menacing red eyes started to appear. Millions of them.

I was paralyzed with fear at the sight of this. My mind was screaming at me, "Run you idiot, RUN!" But my legs refused to move. Suddenly there was this deafening roar that came out of Gateway, temporarily making me go deaf. I was suddenly tackled by something that moved faster than my eye could follow. That's when every thing started to happen at once.

When I looked up to see my assailant, I was staring into something out of a nightmare. The… _thing_ that had me pinned to the ground, it had the build of a regular human being, but I knew just by looking at it this wasn't human. Its eyes were a furious glowing red, it's teeth had dark black fangs that looked really sharp, its hands were claws and feet were talons, and it was also extremely muscular.

The monster stared at me eyes full of rage, eyes that looked like the wanted to kill. It growled at me, and I could've sworn it was giving me a smirk or some kind of evil grin. There was no way I would be able to fight back against this thing and live. And besides I was too frightened to even think about doing that. All I could do was wait for my violent, brutal, and gruesome demise. The monster began to raise its left claw, preparing for the kill…

And then a loud gunshot was heard. Someone had apparently shot a gun at the monster and ended up distracting it. I didn't know where it came from or who else was in the warehouse, but I decided not to think about it and take this chance to get the hell away from that thing. I raised my right arm, which was free from when the monster was about to slash me, quickly jabbed my fist in the left side of that thing's face. It reared back, and clutched said side of its face in pain, surprise and irritation. I had enough space between me and the monster to where I could move my legs, so I brought up my right leg, curling it to where my knee touched my chest, and slammed my right foot into the monster's torso.

Surprisingly enough the force of my kick was strong enough to make the monster stumble backwards a bit, giving me the chance to scramble to my feet and move as far away from that thing as I could. I then heard several more gunshots and turned around in time to see the monster getting the crap shot out of its head. After several more consecutive (and deadly accurate, might I add) headshots, the monster slowly staggered backwards, collapsed on its knees and disintegrated out of existence.

It took a few moments for net to catch my breath, all the while rapidly trying to process what just happened here. How did my computer get hacked? What was that place that Gateway connected to? And more importantly,

"WHAT! THE FUCK! WAS THAT?!"

As if things weren't bad enough, an entire army of monsters suddenly burst out of Gateway! I stared in horror and waited to be overpowered by the onslaught of creatures…but nothing happened. Instead, all of the monsters were running past me, smashing through the windows and busting down the doors. They were going out into the city! And they just kept coming out of Gateway! They were endless!

"What the hell is going on here?!" I yelled in both fear and frustration. I got my answer from a voice that suddenly came from nowhere.

"It's the end of the world as we know it."

I turned around to my left to find the source of the voice, and standing in the entrance of the warehouse was an African American cop wearing a standard light blue uniform and black slacks, reloading his gun. He was the guy that had killed the monster.

"Jesus," he said. "He really wasn't kidding about those things being vicious. Almost makes me wish I wasn't a part of this."

His voice. I've heard his voice before. But where? Amongst the chaos that was going on in the warehouse I furiously tried to search my mind for where I heard that voice, until after a few seconds…wait…was he…?

"You're voice…I've heard it…on the phone…" I said. "You're the guy that was in charge of my parent's accident!" There was no doubt this was the same guy. I never forget the sound of people's voices.

He whistled, as though he were impressed. "Wow, you really are good at memorizing voices. Guess that comes with the territory with your major being Digital Media."

I was almost about to ask how he knew what my former major was, but then realized that was a little stupid since he was in charge of my parents' case, and as such, he had access to my personal information.

"Oh wait, I don't believe I introduced myself to you when we last talked." He holstered his gun. "Officer Patrick Rogers, reporting for duty," he proudly said.

I breathed a sigh of relief. This guy was probably here to help me. Or…wait. I suddenly remembered that there were still monsters coming out of Gateway. Uh oh.

"U-uh, look, O-Officer I can explain!" I stammered. "I swear this isn't what it looks like! I-I mean…okay, yes I built the machine, but those…those…things, whatever they are, I have no idea what those are! Someone…er _something_ hacked my software and forced my machine to open up…wherever those things are from!"

Patrick made a motion with his hands to signal me to calm down. "Easy kid, relax, I already know all about it."

"Uh…wait, you do?" I asked, a little confused.

"Of course I do. That's why I'm here." Patrick replied with a smile.

"Oh thank God." I breathed another sigh of relief. "So you're here to help me then?"

Patrick then gave me a distraught look, and heaved a sigh. "Uh…look, kid, I really don't know how to tell you this but-"

"Dude, just kill the guy. It'll make our job a lot easier." There was a new voice. This one sounded a little young. Another guy came in wearing an Achievement Hunter tee shirt and blue jean shorts. He had straight, short ginger hair and was wearing a smirk that automatically made me dislike him. "He's done his job, we don't need him around anymore."

Okay, if I wasn't confused then I definitely was now. Who the hell was this guy? And…did he just say they were going to kill me?!

Patrick turned to the ginger guy with a disapproving look. "I don't know. Doesn't exactly seem fair to the kid; killing him with out telling him the truth?"

"Truth?" I asked. I was seriously starting to lose nerve now. I was scared, angry, confused, and frustrated. "What truth, seriously what the fuck is happening?!" It seemed that these guys knew something this crap, and I wanted answers.

"I agree with Rogers," said another voice, this one seeming very familiar. And when the guy walked in I was shocked. He had short wavy black hair and was wearing a white doctors coat.

It was Doctor Thomas Daniels.

"He's worked day and night building this machine to change his life, only to have it blow up in his face." He said calmly, with a tone of authority. "No doubt his mind is riddled with all sorts of questions, and he deserves to know the answers. It's the least we can do for deceiving him."

"Wait…what…?" What were they talking about…?

"Oh, yeah, and how do you think he's gonna take it?" the ginger guy replied, rather rudely. "Look at him! He's on the verge of a psychotic break down! Do you honestly think that he's gonna believe us? He'll if it were me and I woke up one day to find out that I was destined to be the emissary of the apocalypse, I'd be clawing my fucking hair out!"

Something in my mind shattered after hearing that. "WHAT?!" I yelled in disbelief.

"Jason!" Patrick yelled at the ginger guy, whose name apparently was Jason, and who also followed mine the cop's outburst with a face palm.

"Ah, shit," he cursed himself. "Well, that cat's out of the bag." He turned to face me. "Uh, look dude, there really is no nice or easy way to explain this, but-"

"Let me explain it to him." A fourth voice had entered the conversation. But there was something about this voice that almost made me piss myself. It was a voice I feared, a voice that kept echoing in my head, and one that I heard in my nightmares. It was deep and had a slight German accent.

It was the voice of the mysterious man.

My legs started to tremble as he appeared in the warehouse entrance. He wore the close that a church pastor would normally wear, complete with a cross around his neck and holding the holy bible in his right hand. He was bald and he looked like he was in his sixties. His smile that he wore would've seemed gentle if his eyes didn't looks so cold and lifeless.

"We meet at last, Andrew Hindle," he said with a calmness in his voice that, on a regular basis would have made me feel safe, but right now, it filled me with fear. An incomprehensible amount of fear.

"I am Father Peter Johan," he continued. "But most people refer to me as Father Pete. I'm the Pastor for the Church of the Brethren here in Harrisonburg." He turned towards Patrick and the doc. "I see that you've already been acquainted with the majority of us. Well," he then looked at Jason. "Except for the youngest of us."

"Huh?" Jason said. "Oh, right, right, sorry." Jason straightened himself up a little. "Name's Jason Anderson, one of the media managers at ABC News. I would say 'Good to meet you, kid,' but in all honesty, it really isn't."

I just stared at the four people. A doctor, a police officer, a news crew member, and a frickin' pastor? This was defiantly a group of people you would not see together on a regular basis.

"Yes, I do imagine that we are an interesting collection of people," Father Pete said, as though he was reading my thoughts. "But right now I believe you have some questions that you wish to be answered?"

I was still scared shitless, but some how I managed to stutter out, "Y-yeah…"

"Then we shall enlighten you. After all, the Lord does not wish for you to remain in the dark."

Jason just rolled his eyes, with an "oh brother" look on his face.

Trying (and failing miserably) to shake the fear from my head, I said, "O-okay. First off, with the exception of the doc and the cop, how the fuck do you know me and my parents, how the fuck did you know about my machine, how the fuck did my computer get hacked with no network connection, why the fuck are all of you here, what the fuck are those things, what the fuck did you mean," I pointed to Jason, "by that emissary of the apocalypse crap, AND WHAT THE FUCK IS GOING ON?!" I yelled that last part out in a combination of furiousness, fear, frustration, and down right confusion.

My voice continued to echo through the warehouse, and I'm pretty sure a few of the monsters that were still coming out of Gateway stopped to see what my problem was. Guess they didn't pay me much mind because they never came towards me and just left.

"Yeesh," Jason said, a bit surprised at how loud my voice was. "Post traumatic stress disorder much?" I just glared at him.

"Shut it, tomato head!" I yelled. Jason spluttered in offense.

"I, wh-, the fu-, ah-, what did you call me?!" He yelled back. Patrick and Thomas couldn't help but snicker at this. Father Pete kept his composed state.

"Ahem," he said, getting back on track. "Yes well, it is understandable why you are upset, so we will answer as we are able. First, the answer to how I know you and your family. You see, I've been watching you since the day you were born. I've watched you grow and mature from afar, making sure you never strayed from your destined path."

I shuddered at that thought. "Uh, okay, not gonna lie," I replied, "but that's kinda creepy. And I'm not sure I believe a word of it. But for the sake of the argument, let's say that I do. Why spend twenty-one years of your life watching me in particular. And what the hell is the 'destined path' part supposed to mean?"

"Well," Father Pete said, "you have a very special purpose in this world. That purpose is of course your destined path. What that is exactly, we'll get to that. Now as for how I know about your machine, Gateway you called it? I knew about it because I knew you were going to build it years before todays events."

What?! No way, there was no way that was possible.

"Yeah, okay, now I know for sure that you're bull shitting me," I retorted. " No human on earth has that kind of foresight."

"Just give him time," Patrick defended. "I was skeptical about the whole thing when he told me about it, but seeing you build that thing, I instantly became a believer."

"Yeah, that reminds me," I quickly remembered something I forgot to ask. "When did you guys get roped into this crap? You don't look nearly old enough to have been watching me for twenty-one years. Assuming what the Pastor says is even remotely true."

"Oh you'd better believe it's true," Jason jumped in. "Old Pete here found us and rounded us up together about a month before your parents' tragic accident. Oh and buy the way? The guy that crashed into your parents' car?" He pointed his thumbs at himself. "It was me," he said with a smirk.

"YOU WHAT?!" I yelled furiously. "Well why the hell aren't you in jail?!"

"That's because I was in disguise." Jason said. "I was pretending to be a scam artist that Pete had arranged Patrick to kill beforehand. He then sent the autopsy report to me and I made the facemask based on the info. Used create props back in the day. So, basically they way it worked, is that I cause the crash in my disguise, the cops look up his criminal record, Pat takes a group of men to arrest him at his house, but they find that he's been dead for over a month." He started laughing is ass of. "The whole police force was frickin stumped, and the whole case got suspended until they could figure out what happened! Oh man, what a bunch of suckers!"

I turned a furious look at Patrick. "Explain! Now! Why the fuck are you working with my parents' assailant?! Why the hell didn't you tell me about this?!"

Patrick sighed, looking like he really didn't want to be here. "Look, this isn't personal, son. But the reason I kept this from you is because you didn't need to know. If you knew you'd probably get distracted and stop working on Gateway to file lawsuits. And we couldn't allow that."

"But that doesn't explain why you would side with a fucking criminal!" I was furious at this point.

Patrick sighed again. "I have my reasons…you wouldn't understand. But on a separate note, you asked how your computer got hacked? That was my doing." He raised his hands, as if to say he was guilty. "Back in my college years, I used to be a hacker, ironically enough. The email I sent contained a virus that would activate and take control of both your computer and Gateway when you entered in the data to go back and save your parents."

"But that's impossible!" I exclaimed. "I wrote the software for Gateway a month ago! You would've had to known the codes I used to write the software in order to craft a virus to take control of it!"

Thomas then spoke up. "We'll get to that. But first, the reason why we're here." Thomas removed the black-rimmed glasses he was wearing and looked at me with somber eyes. "Andrew, remember when I said that it seemed like someone didn't want to let your parents wake up?" He paused for a bit then sighed. "I am that someone."

I froze after hearing that. "W-what…?"

"Andrew, I didn't want to. But I had to. If I didn't, you wouldn't have had a reason to build Gateway. Which brings me to the reason why I'm here." Another pause, as he looked down. "I came here because I couldn't stand lying to you any longer. When you called me today, I was literally minutes away from this place, and I had to lie to you again. You're timing was impeccable." He looked back up at me. "But if it's any consolation, your parents should be waking up and in perfect condition."

Perfect condition…? But… "I thought you said-"

"That their spines were fractured? Another lie. Just more fuel to add to your fire," the doctor said sadly.

"Yeah, well, great, thanks for the update asshole. And no the fact that my parents are okay doesn't make things better, because now, they're gonna be waking up to a goddamn nightmare!" I couldn't believe what I was hearing!

"I'm afraid it's about to get much worse." Patrick chimed in. I had to make you public enemy number one."

"And what does that mean?" I asked, my rage increasing.

"The people of the world will be looking for a scapegoat to pin the blame on from all these monsters," the cop answered. "And since you're the one who built the machine, you fit the criteria. I also had to fabricate a criminal record of you in order to make your conviction believable since, before now that is, the general public was unaware of your existence."

I scoffed. "As if. There's no way they're gonna believe that a young adult was able to build the worlds first time machine!"

"Not unless they see the footage I sent to ABC of you struggling against that monster," Jason said, showing me his smart phone. "By the way, that punch and kick you gave to that monster? Fucking awesome! But you kinda got outshined by good ol' Pat with his sharp shootin' skills." He then snapped his fingers. "Oh, right, I'm here to show your face to the media, and expose you for the young mad scientist that He made you to be." He had a vicious little smirk while saying this.

I had the urge to run up to that tomato head freak and bash his skull in, but I held against it, since one of them had a gun. "And who the hell is 'He?'" I asked.

"Ugh, were getting to that!" yelled Jason, getting really irritated. "Jesus, stop giving us more questions already!"

"Calm yourself, Jason," Father Pete said. "Ahem, anyways. I am here to tell you the two choices you have left to live the rest of your life."

What…? Choices…?

"But before that," he continued, "to answer your question as to what those creatures are, they are known simply as, 'The Cursed.'"

"The…Cursed?" I asked, not sure what the significance was for that name.

"Yes," Father Pete said. "They are from a dimension that is parallel to ours. Originally they were people, like us. But their world was destroyed upon mysterious circumstances, and their remnants imprisoned in a one-way pocket dimension, which just so happens to be the one you opened up. They feel nothing, but anger, rage, sorrow, and despair. Such were the emotions of these individuals when they were destroyed."

Well that certainly explained why the one Cursed that attacked me looked humanoid. A very scary and demonic humanoid.

"Yeah, okay, that's very fascinating and all, but there's still one more question you haven't answered." I commented, dreading what I would hear next. "What. The fuck. Was the purpose. FOR RUINING MY FUCKING LIFE?!"

There were a few seconds of silence. Then…

"Uh, Peter?" said Thomas. "You uh…you might wanna take this one."

"Oh boy, here it comes…" Jason remarked.

Father Peter sighed. "Andrew. Be warned. What I am about to say may shock you. To say the least."

"GET TO THE GODDAMN POINT!"

"Very well." Father Pete still kept his composed state. "Are you familiar with the story of Noah's Ark?"

I was a little puzzled by this. "Uh yeah, it was basically God's idea of a reset button for Earth. He flooded the world, drowning everyone, save for Noah and most of his family, whom He instructed to build an ark and fill it with two of every animal on the planet, one for each gender."

"Yeah," Jason pitched in, "well, in a way, this is kinda the same thing. Only a little more harsh, and there's no ark."

I could've sworn I felt time stop as I put two and two together. "W-wait…are you saying that…?"

"Like I said, kid," Patrick spoke up. "It's the end of the world as we know it."

"Indeed," Father Pete added. "The Book of Revelations is at hand."

I had to struggle to keep my knees from buckling, as I felt like they were about to give out on me. I turned to look at Gateway, and all of the monsters that were coming out. "Then…all of this…is my fault…?"

I heard Thomas sigh. "Andrew, weren't you listening? This is God's will. Not yours, or ours."

"Quite," agreed Father Pete. "A tool is not to be blamed for the actions of the carpenter. It merely helps carry out the tasks of its user."

I felt enraged at that. "A tool?! Me?!" I turned a vicious glare at the Pastor. "You actually expect me to believe this bull shit?!"

Jason pointed his hand at me. "See? I told you he was gonna react like this, but nooooooo! Nobody ever listens to the guy wearing a videogame shirt!"

"If you weren't so cynical all the time, then maybe we'd take you a bit more seriously." Patrick said, rather apathetically.

"I am NOT a tool! You hear me?!" I yelled furiously, ignoring their banter. "I am NO ONE'S TOOL! You hurt my parents, kept them sedated, tortured me, used me, made me suffer, and now you've destroyed my life! And for what?! Some kind of fucked up epiphany that you probably had in your sleep?! I refuse to believe that God wants this world destroyed, I refuse that He wants all of my family, friends, and every human being dead, and I refuse to believe that He used me to do it! YOU'RE ALL FUCKING INSANE!"

I grabbed a small blunt copper pipe that had been lying on the floor and ran at the four, yelling at the top of my lungs, enraged. I didn't care that one of them had a gun, I wanted to beat the living shit out of them! I HATED them!

But I wasn't even hallway towards them when a bright flash of light exploded in front of me and sent me flying back, all the way to my laptop. I grunted as I landed on my back, the concrete floor sending a small jolt of pain down my spine upon impact. What was happening now?!

"Good," I heard Jason say. "Maybe this will get the brat to shut up."

I turned around to see what had caused that bright flash of light…and I couldn't believe my eyes. There, standing in front of who were probably the four men that I hated the most in the world, was a man, with long blond hair, and deep blue eyes. He was wearing a toga, sandals on his feet, and carrying a round golden shield and a golden sword. But what really shocked me was what was on his back.

Wings. Real, genuine wings.

I was looking at an actual angel.

"I will not allow you to inflict harm upon God's chosen,"

I was both scared and pissed. I was scared because I was actually looking at a real live angel, and I was also pissed because this meant that everything that Father Pete had said was true.

"Who the hell are you?!" I yelled at the angel.

"I am the angel Gabriel," he replied back. "And I have come to make you realize the futility of your struggle."

Gabriel. I knew that name. Even though I wasn't a religious guy, I knew enough about the bible to know who this particular angel was. He was basically the right hand man to God. The "Yes man" in other words, always eager to please his master. I was always irritated by people like that because from my perspective, they always did what they were told without questioning what was right or wrong, without doing what they believed was right. And right now, I didn't care that this guy was an angel, from the way he talked in his posh accent, I really did not like him.

I guess Jason saw the dumbfounded look on my face, because he said, "Okay, man. NOW do you believe us?"

Before I could make a response, Gabriel turned to Jason. "Let me do the talking from here, young man," he said, rather sternly. Jason shut up after that. Gabriel then turned to me. "Andrew. Everything these men say is true. The world as it is today is beyond the salvation that you would deem idea. Just as God once cleansed the world with water, He does so again with blood."

"That's ridiculous!" I yelled. "You expect me to believe that the God I believe in, the God I prayed to for years would end this world with the deaths of thousands of innocence?! Like my family and friends?!"

"In your eyes, they are innocence. But in God's eyes, they are beings that are capable of both great good…and greater evil."

"Look, I don't know exactly what goes on upstairs or how you view us, but it's pretty clear to me that you in particular view us humans as insects," I deduced. "And honestly, I am quite offended."

"You shouldn't be," Gabriel replied gently. "You all were insignificant from the beginning. It was your mistake thinking that you could all stray from God's intended path for all of you and live a life that you had desired for yourself. Truly, the avarice of humanity will know no bounds."

"And your mistake," I countered, "is thinking that the human race is just gonna take their extension willingly. There's no way that we're gonna go down with out a fight!"

"A meaningless effort. You will fail."

"Maybe, but I'm willing to bet we can work off some miracle. You should tell your master that underestimating His creations is not gonna turn out well for him. You say that my struggle, our struggle will be futile? I'll bet you as soon as the people hear the truth that this is God's doing-"

"There would be panic and chaos," Father Pete cut in. "Religions and congregations would be divided, panic and riots would break out in the streets. Some may aid The Cursed in hopes of salvation. Andrew, if the people knew about the truth of things, nothing would change. We are the privileged few who have full knowledge of these events."

"Why fight at all?" Gabriel inquired. "It is the will of God. There should be no reason for you to wander from your destiny."

"Okay, seriously," I said, very frustrated, "you guys have been saying 'destined path this, destined path that,' and I'm getting real sick of it! What the hell does that have anything to do with me?!"

"Ugh," Jason groaned. "We've already gone over it, dumbass! You were supposed to do this!"

"But why me?! You could've picked anyone else!"

"BECAUSE THAT'S WHY YOU WERE BORN!"

There was a huge silence after that. Jason's sudden outburst slowly began to sink into my mind. "Wh-what….?" I meekly said.

Father Peter sighed. "Andrew, we said you were a tool. A tool crafted and molded by God to bring about the day of reckoning. In layman's terms, you were born for the sole reason for bringing the apocalypse to fruition."

My knees finally gave out. I landed on them with a thud. The cold hard concrete ground hurt my bare skin. My whole body trembled. Tears were streaming out of my eyes. It was a lie. It had to be. "No…that's not true…it can't be…I REFUSE TO ACCEPT THAT!"

"You have no choice but to believe it," Gabriel stated.

"SHUT UP! I had a life! I had hopes and dreams! I had friends and family! And then you come to tear them away from and tell my that my entire life was a fucking lie?!" I looked over to Gateway. Monsters were still coming out by the dozens. "Why couldn't God just open that damn dimension on his own?!"

"Uh, hello?" Jason said. "One way pocket dimension? Were you even paying attention? God can send them in, but He can't send them out. That's the way the dimension was constructed. Even gods have rules, dude. The only way it could be opened is if someone stupid enough who's not a god knew how to punch a hole in time and space, and knew where to look. That's why He had you build Gateway. Oh, and FYI, your knowledge on quantum physics and mechanics is not your own."

I glared at him. "What the fuck does that mean?"

"It means," Gabriel explained, "that everything you know is what the lord wanted you to know. He gave you that knowledge to you in your dreams. He gave you the materials to work with. He gave Peter the equation to send to you to finish it."

"No! You're wrong! I built this thing with my own hands. I wasn't commanded by anyone to do it. Now I'll destroy it. I'll show you just how wrong you are."

I picked up the copper pipe again and rushed towards Gateway. I was going to smash the monstrosity that I had created until nothing was left. I was a fool to think that I could change the past. I should've just accepted reality for what it was and worked to move on my own two legs. I was always weak. For as long as I can remember I've always wanted to do things in my favor with as little complications and as little work as possible. But that was just me being childish and lazy. I should've known better. But now I was going to make up for it. If I couldn't stop the apocalypse, destroying Gateway would at least lessen the numbers of Cursed that were coming out by the woodwork.

Unfortunately that never happened because some invisible force slammed into my chest and once again knocked me back to my computer. It was none other than Gabriel.

"You're purpose has been fulfilled." Gabriel said. "But we still need this machine. Though the humans' fight will be futile they will still fight. They may even gain ground. But The Cursed will be endless. The will overpower them in the end."

Gabriel snapped his fingers and Gateway vanished. I don't know where it went. The only thing left was my computer. It was smoking. The motherboard and CPU had been fried.

"The lord can now use your machine. You have served your purpose."

I turned a furious look to the other four. "Oh yeah?!" I yelled. "And what about you guys?! This is the end of the world were talking about here! You're part of it! Don't you even feel the slightest bit of sorrow or guilt that you aided in this?!"

"Me? Feel sorry?" Jason scoffed. "This world can crash and burn for all I care. Seriously, politics, economy, propaganda, government, war, etc. The world is full of idiots. I figured that out a long time ago. And personally, I just want to see them die in agony as they realize the error of their ways. On their knees, begging for forgiveness, pleading for a second chance! And then their prayers go ignored! Oh, man! The irony of it all is just so fucking beautiful! You're gonna be blamed for it all, and I'm gonna record the carnage, and broadcast it live!"

This guy was a fucking psychopath. Reminded me of a more messed up version of my ex girlfriend.

"I really wish this wasn't happening either son," Patrick looked at me with sorrow in his eyes. "But this is the way it has to be. There's too much corruption in the world to be undone by man's hand. The only way is divine destruction."

"My family is dead." Thomas said. "Killed by a robber in the Francis Scott Key mall. The justice system didn't even put him in jail. They said there wasn't enough evidence to convict him. I kept the authorities that my family was murdered and all they said was, 'That is unfortunate, but there is nothing we can do.' It wasn't until latter that I found out that the police and that robber had an under the table deal. Blackmail most likely. He threatened to spill the beans they didn't destroy the evidence." Thomas looked at me with eyes even more sorrowful than Patrick's. "I'm sorry Andrew. But this world has to go."

"This is God's will," Father Pete spoke. "It is just. I have no reason to object."

"But you'll DIE! Doesn't that scare you?!" I seriously couldn't figure out why they weren't afraid of that thought.

Until Gabriel said, "Not so. They have been offered a place in the new world where they will guide the inhabitants as agents of God. Thomas has also been promised to see his family again in the new world."

I looked at them in disgust. They had sold out their own kind for some kind of selfish dream?! Even Thomas! I couldn't believe this.

"Now," Father Pete said. "Here are the remaining choices for the remainder of your life. Option one: You can live the rest of your life as you see fit in this crumbling world. You may fight against us if you wish, but you must realize that it is a futile effort. Option two: If you do not wish you to die, then we offer you to join us. You will be granted unimaginable power and immortality. You can help guide the people of the new world on a path of pure perfection."

"A choice in which I object to," said Gabriel, pointing his sword at me.

"Oh, right," Patrick said, "forgot about that. Yeah, he doesn't really like you, son."

"He doesn't like any of us, Pat" Jason corrected. "He thinks that working with humans like us is unsanitary to a holy being like him. But for some reason," he looked at me, "he really doesn't like you. Dunno why though."

He was right. When the angel pointed his sword at me, his eyes clearly showed a look of detest. But why?

"Alright," Father Pete continued, "I'll change that to three choices. Option three: You can let Gabriel liberate you from you tortured soul."

At this point my head was hung over, my eyes staring at the floor. My choices; fight and die, live as a holy being and just forget this ever happened, or just plain die. I couldn't help but laugh miserably. I think I finally lost it at that point. "Hah, so this is what my life has come to, huh? Well, I'll be honest. I really didn't see this coming. Okay, Pete," I slowly started to get up to my feet. "Here's my answer. You take that second offer of yours and shove it up your ass. There's not a chance in hell that I'm just gonna forget about what you all did to me." I grabbed my laptop and walked over to my backpack and placed it inside. Wasn't really sure why, I mean the thing was fried. Guess I wanted to try and see if I could fix it after all this shit was over. But there was something else that I wanted to grab from my backpack. "And as for the whole dying part: I'm gonna pass on that." I took out a flash bang grenade. I had a friend of mine who was in the military give it to me in case I ever needed to defend myself from any street thugs in my life. And since I never wanted anyone to find out about what I was making, a flash bang grenade was an ideal non-lethal method to getting rid of any unwanted guests. However, in this situation, it would only serve as a temporary distraction. But that was really all I needed to make a point.

"So you can be damn sure I'm gonna fight back," I continued, standing back up, holding the flash bang to my chest so that they wouldn't see what I was holding. "Yeah, I know it may be futile, and I know I may end up loosing. But I would at least like to have the chance to prove you wrong. You took my life away from me. I'll never forgive you for that!" I turned and threw the flash bang.

Gabriel must've figured out what I was planning, because the second that the flash bang was in the air, he shot a radiant beam of light from his sword at the flash bang. But I don't think he mistook it for a regular grenade.

Patrick on the other hand realized what was going on. "Gabriel, don't!" he yelled.

I smirked. _Too late fuckers,_ I thought to myself, and quickly shut my eyes and covered my ears.

The flash bang went…well, uh, FLASH and then BANG! Seriously, how obvious of a title can you give a weapon. I'm pretty sure Pete, Thomas, Patrick, and Jason let out a few yells and groans at the loud noise and blinding light, and an additional "AAAAAHH, MOTHE FUCKER!" from Jason. As soon as I was sure I could safely open my eyes, (which only took a second) I quickly dashed back over to the copper pipe and started to charge at Gabriel, who was, much to my surprise, uncovering his face from his shield.

Gabriel had enough time to draw up his sword and parry my attack. Now I admit: At the time, I had absolutely zero experience in sword fighting. I didn't even know how to fight. But something inside my head was screaming to me, _fight! Win! Hold nothing back! Take back what you lost!_ For reasons beyond my comprehension, that voice was my drive to survive. Somehow…I can't really explain how or why…but I knew what to do. In that moment I knew how fight, how to defend myself.

Gabriel took a vertical swing at me, but I blocked it horizontally with the pipe gripped in both hands. I forced his blade back and we continued to clash. The warehouse echoed with bangs and clangs, and grunts. We were probably at that for about three minutes. I may have inexplicably known how to fight and defend myself, but my stamina was draining fast. Adrenaline only lasts for so long. Gabriel was an angel. It was nearly impossible for him to get tired. I couldn't keep this up for much longer. Eventually I would loose. If I were to turn this in my favor, I would have to get a little creative. And I did, but not in a way that Gabriel expected.

After clashing a few more times, Gabriel thrust his sword at me in an attempt to impale me through my heart. It never got that far because I grabbed it.

That's right.

I grabbed the blade of Gabriel's sword.

With my bare left hand.

And it hurt like a bitch.

But I didn't care.

Gabriel looked at me with shock. His sword cut the flesh of my hand pretty deep. Blood trickled down the blade. It stung and burned badly. But I now had my chance. With a grunt, I gritted my teeth against the pain, and gave a mighty backhand swing with my right hand, the pipe still in my grasp, delivering my first blow to Gabriel right across his face.

Gabriel let out a loud growl of pain and the grip on his sword loosened. With his blade still in my left hand, I yanked it away from him and threw both the sword and the pipe to the ground with a loud clang. With both of my fists clenched I delivered several punches to Gabriel's face and torso while he was still stunned. The blood from my left hand became splattered across his face as I furiously continued my assault, finishing with an upward kick from my right foot on Gabriel's left cheek. The force of the kick sent him back a few feet, and he landed on his back with a thud.

Holy shit.

I was fighting an angel.

And I was winning!

What the hell was going on with me? When did I learn to do that? I grunted, exhausted as I tried to figure this out. All of my joints ached. Gabriel was slowly starting to get back up, rage and shock in his eyes. I turned to look at the four spectators, and what I saw was amusing to say the least.

Patrick's eyes were wide with astonishment, and he mouthed, "Damn."

Thomas had the same look, but his hands were clutching his hair.

Jason's jaw was hung wide open. "Okay, I think I know why Gabriel doesn't like this guy."

As for Father Pete, he was still in a composed posture, but there was clear shot, fear, and rage in his eyes as he was trying to process what had just happened. He was also clutching the Bible very tightly.

I was just as shocked as them.

"You worthless infidel!" Gabriel shouted furiously at me. "How dare you oppose the will of God?!" He clutched his face. "How…how could you, a mere mortal inflict harm upon me?! It's inconceivable! How?! HOW?!"

"Uhh…..I don't really know." I really didn't. "I just got really mad…and then…it happened."

Gabriel still looked enraged at me. "To think that I could be humiliated by the likes of you." He slowly got back up to his feet. "You must be destroyed."

"What?" I panted. "Scared of weak little me?"

"Fear?!" Gabriel scoffed. "Of you?! Hah! The very thought makes me wretch! No. Your existence simply…irks me. There is something about you, something I can't understand. And I loathe what I cannot comprehend."

"Well, too bad," I retorted. "I told you before: Never underestimate humans."

"Tis but a stroke of luck." Gabriel was charging up a ball of light to fire at me. "But that will not save you today."

"ENOUGH!"

The giant booming voice that came out of nowhere threw everyone off guard. Where did that come from?!

"M-my lord?" Gabriel stuttered.

Wait…that was the voice of God?!

Father Pete immediately dropped the Bible and knelt down, folding his hands as if he were praying. "My lord, God!" He cried Joyously.

"Oh boy, here we go," groaned Jason.

"Everything is as you have envisioned. The emissary has performed his duty splendidly, and The Cursed have been unleashed! They are now yours to command! This world will be cleansed and a new world shall be born! Everything is as you have foreseen! And I am blessed to be among the few to have carried out your work!"

"You have done well to please me, Peter Johan. Thou art blessed indeed." The voice said again. My mind was ready to explode. I was literally hearing the voice of God!

"My lord!" Gabriel exclaimed. "This human defies your will and has somehow been able to inflict harm upon a holy being! ME! This infidel must be purged, thrown into the depths of hell, and suffer in eternal pain and agony! HE! MUST! DIE!"

"Calm yourself my dear Gabriel." God said soothingly and immediately, the angel did so. "It is true that he has gone against me, and has tarnished one of my own. He does deserve to be punished. However, I have a more suitable punishment then death."

"Wait, what?" I was both confused and a little scared at this.

"My lord?" Gabriel asked. "What do you plan to do with him?"

As if on cue, the air behind me rumbled and cracked. I turned around and a dark purple black hole opened up. The wind in the area started to pick up and I was immediately picked up and pulled towards it. I frantically grabbed on to the edge of a pothole that in the cement floor and hung on to dear life.

"Andrew Hindle." God's voice boomed. "This leads to a rift between time and space. A place that is completely devoid of all life. Time does not exist within. Your punishment is this: You will be banished and sealed from this world. You will have know knowledge of what is happening here, no way to come back. You will wander this void with a guilty conscious until the feeling of solitude drives you mad. This will be your never ending life and death."

I was horrified. "No! No, no, no, no, no! You can't do this to me! I didn't do anything wrong! They took my life away from me! I wanted it back! What's wrong with that?!"

"The life you lived was an illusion until your awakening. That time has now passed, and you have no further use to me. I will always love you dearly. But you must be punished for your defiance. Farewell my son."

I finally lost grip of the pothole and hurled towards the black hole where I was thrown into the void. I looked behind me and saw what I could describe as the gateway back to my world. I was huge. It was in the shape of a circle, outlined by the golden ridges of a clockwork gear. The inner circle had purple hazy mist flowing around it, and on the inside was a vision of Earth. Dark clouds covered the planet, and fires could be seen all over the world. It was horrible. I'll never get that image out of my head.

Suddenly, image went dark, and a giant golden clockwork gear grew in the middle until it completely covers the gate. Twelve chains burst out from the middle bolt and connected to twelve key locks that suddenly appeared along the edges of the gear. They all connected with loud clicks, clangs, and bangs. And finally ended with a very loud click.

"NO! NO, PLEASE DON'T DO THIS TO ME!" I yelled as I ran towards the gate. I started banning on it with fury, and despair. This couldn't be real, it couldn't be. I kept banging on the gate, screaming "no" and "I'm sorry" over and over again. But it was futile. Eventually, I stopped pounding on the gate, and broke down crying.

My fate was decided.

This void was my eternal prison.

I was stuck here.

Forever.

…

My prison was an endless transparent tunnel. Outlined with vertical lines that glowed like neon lights. Surrounded by a deep, endless purple void, scattered with the faces of clocks that resemble Big Ben, complete with roman numerals, clockwork gears and other clock pieces.

The Timeless Void.

That was the name I gave my prison. Time doesn't exist in the Timeless Void. So I don't really know how long I cried. Or how long I was in that prison. At least in terms of the regular flow of time back in my world. How long was I there? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? A century? I had no way of knowing. Were my parents still alive? Did they hate me? My brother? My friends? The thought kept haunting and torturing me endlessly. It drove me insane. And insane I went.

I cried.

I screamed.

I threw up countless times.

This place was worse then hell.

All I could do was wander about aimlessly. Wander forever in the Timeless Void. Might as well make myself familiar with the place. I did have my iPod, but couldn't play music through. It was busted. Probably shattered after I got forced into this place. I also came across the scattered remains of my backpack and laptop. I tried to fix both my computer and my iPod, but I didn't know how. I guess God removed the knowledge from my mind when He didn't need me anymore. Seriously, if I was going to spend the rest of my life in a place where time is non-existent, I would've at least liked some music. This place really was worse than hell.

And so I wandered.

And wandered.

Endlessly.

Until I found it.

Something really strange.

Stranger than God or The Cursed.

What I saw was a giant mass of dark purple clouds. Like some kind of thunderstorm, without the thunder or lightning. I never saw anything like that before in the Timeless Void. And I wanted to find out what it was. So I floated (yes floated, gravity is non existent in there as well) towards the storm and what I saw as even stranger!

In what could be considered as the eye of those clouds, I saw a glowing bright purple orb that was surrounded by four clockwork gears (geez whoever if this void had a designer, they sure had a one track mind). One gear was aligned vertically, two were diagonally in opposite angles from each other, and the last one was aligned horizontally. The orb floated and the gears spun clockwise and rotated around the orb. I was both a little nervous at what I saw and at the same time, amazed.

This thing, what ever it was, looked really cool. I couldn't help myself from getting a closer look. So, I moved closer to it until my face was inches away from the orb. And before I knew it, my hand was reaching towards the orb, grabbing it.

It was at that moment that a giant demonic looking face suddenly appeared in front of me. It had glowing cobalt eyes and mouth. It just looked at me. Staring. As if it was trying to figure out who or what I was.

"Uh…" I uttered. "I-Is this yours…? Um, don't worry I was…I was just looking at it. Don't-don't worry, I'll put it back."

But before I could do that, the face vanished! And then the orb shot right out of my hand and into my chest! Forcibly! I yelled out in shock and pain. That hurt worse than Gabriel's sword! And then all of the clouds started to flow towards me…no, wait they entered my body too! I started to scream out in pain and agony. I felt like my body was being ripped apart from the inside out! My heart beat rapidly, almost like it was going to explode. In fact I'm pretty sure it did! Along with all my other internal organs! I was really going to die this time! Die alone! And never see my family or friends again!

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG, UUUUUUUUHHHHHHHHHHHNNNNNNGGGGGGGGGGG, NO! NOT LIKE THIS! I REFUSE TO DIE LIKE THIS!"

There was no chance in hell I was going to accept my fate like this! I wanted to live! I wanted to see my family and friends again! I wanted to save my world! I wanted revenge!

"I DON'T CARE HOW LONG IT TAKES! I'LL FIND A WAY! I WILL RETURN! I'LL FIGHT! I'LL WIN! AND I'M NOT GONNA HOLD ANYTHING BACK! I'LL TAKE BACK MY LIFE! AND I'M GONNA KILL THE BASTARDS WHO TOOK IT!"

My body couldn't take it anymore. I exploded in a brilliant flame of dark purple, yelling furiously all the while. My eyes started to glow a deep azure blue.

And then…my vision went dark.

AN: And now the story can truly begin! Stay tuned!


	3. Chapter 1-My Journey Begins

AN: Okay! Time to start the story for realz! But first…wait WHAT?! I actually got some reviews?! Wow. Didn't think this would catch on this quickly. Thanks guys! That really means a lot! Okay, now for the responses!

CatalinaVonFeuer: Thank you so much for the positive feed back! I didn't think I'd get such a nice review right off the bat, but if you liked it, that means I must've done SOMETHING right. In a story as grandiose as this, I believe that exposition and origins are extremely important. And like I said before, I have a general idea in where this story is going and whoooooo boy, it's gonna be a big one. Hopefully you like it if you liked the beginning so far. Thanks a lot!

Okay, ON WITH CHAPTER ONE!

Chapter One-My Journey Begins

 _The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step._

 _But in this case, the journey of many worlds begins by accident._

My vision was blurry when I opened my eyes. Purple. That's all I saw. And a whole bunch of scattered mechanical pieces that looked like the belonged in a clock. Wait, what…? Where was…?

Oh, wait. Right. The Timeless Void. That's where I was. Wait a second. Why was I there? Why was…wait, didn't I die? I thought I-

"Ah!" I yelled as I grabbed my head. Man, did it hurt! Like someone had dropped an anvil on…no, wait scratch that, like someone had stuffed a giant anvil inside of a piano, without breaking the piano, and then shoved that inside my head. Worst headache of my life. Well…at least what was left of my life. And while my head was being squeezed by an invisible clamp, a voice kept echoing in my head. Like the voice I heard when I fought Gabriel, but this one was different. It only said two words.

" _Time Eater."_

That was all it said. But what the hell did it mean? No, no, wait, wait, no, not important right now, how was I alive? I thought I died after I had absorbed that…purple…orb thing…ugh, God, my head…why did it hurt so much? And what happened to my clothes?

…

WHAT HAPPENED TO MY CLOTHES?!

"Okay, it's official. Whatever I grabbed gave me about ten hangovers in a row."

Actually, despite my headache I felt great. Like I lost ten pounds. In fact I think I did! Most of my body fact was gone, replaced by some slim muscle tone. I had abs! My body looked a lot like my brother's.

And no, before you ask, I do not swing that way.

But wait how did this happen?

What happened to me while I was out?

Suddenly I heard some sort of whooshing whisper in my head. But this wasn't a voice. It was…like some kind of…I dunno, sixth sense. Like something in my head was telling me that something…weird was somewhere in the Timeless Void. And somehow I knew where to find it. So I zoomed towards where the whisper lead me.

And I mean ZOOMED!

WOAH!

I was crazy fast! I had never been this fast before! In fact I felt like I had limitless energy! My body was light as a feather! I felt AWESOME! And for some reason I caught myself smiling. For the first time in a long time I was smiling widely! I was enjoying my self! I felt like a new man! I was reborn!

"WHOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

In that moment, I completely forgot about my suffering and torment! And I also kinda forgot I was naked. (Good thing I was the only one I felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off of me. And it felt so good! I felt like I could go on forever! And I couldn't help but laugh happily!

"AHAHAHAAAAAAAHHH! YEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

I soon arrived at what I was…um…sensing, yeah, let's just call it that. I soon arrived at what I was sensing, and what I saw was…for lack of a better word, weird. There was a shiny blue orb, but this orb was different from the purple one I grabbed. What happened to that thing anyways? Whatever, this orb was way bigger, about twice the size of me. Actually I think a sphere would be a better description than orb. Okay, so this sphere showed and image. An image that I have never seen, not even in my wildest imagination.

There were two giants, a white one and a black one. The white one looked muscular, covered in moss, (I think it was moss) and had a giant horn sticking out of it's head. Both of its hands were thrust forward, as if it was gripping some kind of sword, but there was no sword. The other giant, however did. And it looked awesome! This giant was black, and had a mechanical look to it, like it was some kind of robot. The sword it gripped was a dull gold, and with jagged edges, massive in size! It appeared to be lodged in the white giant's right side of its lower torso. The black giant also appeared to be without it's right arm. It was decapitated and left lying in a massive body of water, which served as the giants battle ground. I had no idea what I was looking at, so I went to get a closer look. I really needed to learn to cut that out, because that's when the sphere started to glow a bright light.

The space around me started to warp, and I found my self being drawn toward the sphere, entering it. Traveling through another tunnel at a blinding speed, my vision filled with a brilliant bright blue and dark purple. Eventually I came to the end of the tunnel. Only to find myself yelling and panicking at the top of my lungs. I was falling into a futuristic looking city that was floating above a massive body of water.

I suddenly remembered my fear of heights.

…

Shulk and company were walking back into the entrance of the High Entia Capital. They had just finished a mighty chaotic battle with the assassin Tyrea and her Telethia underling. It was a nightmare, to say the least.

"Man, I tell ya what," Reyn said, "I really hope that's the last Telethia we have to face for a while. Those things are a pain."

"I agree," Sharla replied. "A monster that knows what you're going to do before you even do it. That's nothing to sneeze at."

"Indeed," Dunban joined in. "Intelligent, cunning, and possesses foresight that rivals Shulk's visions."

"Dino beast no match for Heropon! And his side kicks!" exclaimed Riki, happily bouncing up and down.

"Side kicks?!" Reyn shouted. "Who're you calling a side kick?!"

"Not see anyone else! Must be you." Riki smirked and stuck his tongue out at Reyn.

"Why you hairy little volley ball! I oughta-"

Shulk and the rest broke out in a laughing fit.

"Reyn, you're such an easy target!" Shulk said in between laughs.

Reyn just let out a growl in annoyance.

Melia however was not laughing. She was contemplating on the events that transpired inside the Tomb. Why did that assassin want her dead? For what reason would her own people turn against her? Was she really the right person to succeed the High Entia? Her mind began to be cloud her mind. She was glad that Shulk and her friends had come to her aid, but she couldn't help but feel fragile and useless that a group of Homs and a Napon had save her. This just made her question herself.

But all of a sudden her thoughts came to an abrupt halt at the sound of the dome in the capital shattering. Everyone in the area looked up to see the cause, only to find a single man, yelling at the top of his lungs, falling. He landed on the hard ground with a thud.

"AAAAAHHHHHH! AHAAAAHH! Aaahhh, damn it!"

The man, or boy rather, cried out in pain and agony. He had fallen flat on his back. No one knew where he came from or how far he had fallen, but one thing was for sure. No one on Bionis could've survived that fall, Homs, Napon, or High Entia. And yet, somehow, this boy just kept yelling, complaining that his back hurt.

"Aaahh, ohhh, ah, my back! Ohhhhh….uhhhhh….yup, that hurts….so, once again I have to ask to no one in particular…why didn't I die from that?"

Shulk and the others, as well as the entire capital that saw the fiasco were wondering that too. A few guards were rushing over to see what the commotion was about.

"Come on," said Shulk. "He might need help."

The group ran over to the boy, only to have Reyn quickly cover Sharla's eyes, Riki shield his with his paws, Melia turn away in shock, and Shulk, Dunban and Alvis were completely dumbfounded.

The boy was naked. And despite the fact that he had fallen from at least several hundred feet in the air, he was getting back on his feet, groaning and grunting the whole time. Everyone just stared at him. And he stared back. Mostly at the High Entia.

"Huh…okay…people with angel wings on their head," he said, as though he never saw a High Entia before. "Okay…either I landed on my head really hard and am now hallucinating, or I just got another ten hangovers in a row by touching that sphere…ugh…"

His balance was shifting, like he was about to pass out.

"Uhhhh…I…I think I'm…gonna go to sleep now."

And just like that, he collapsed face down.

Everyone was trying to process what had just transpired, when Melia spoke up to the two guards standing there with them. "You two! Get this boy to a medical bay and treat him immediately!"

"Yes, ma'am!" The two guards replied. One of them picked up the boy and the guards hurried over to the nearest medical station.

"Riki is confused. What happen here?"

"I'm wondering the same thing," Dunban replied.

"Curious," was all Alvis had to say.

…

"And that concludes my report on events in the Tomb," Alvis stated to Emperor Sorean Antiqua. Melia, Sorean, Kalian, Alvis, and the rest of the High Entia governing body were in the great hall, discussing the events that transpired both in the Tomb, and with the appearance of the mysterious boy.

"Hmm, so there are forces working in the shadows," replied the Emperor. He was very troubled by the attempt on his daughter, Melia's life.

"However," Alvis added, "this is purely circumstantial. Nothing can be proven."

Sorean sighed. "Inquisitors of the Bionite Order, dedicated and devoted to the Bionis."

Kalian, Melia's older brother, was also troubled by this. The Bionite Order? That wasn't possible. "The Order was dissolved under the rule of the Emperor Lumian, 47th successor to the throne, due to its extreme practices."

"Like puppet masters pulling the strings from the shadows." The Emperor was very worry. "I believed their bloodline was lost to the ages."

"Her highness, the First Consort is currently residing in the Tower of Investigation." Kalian stated. The woman he was referring to was Empress Yumea, Melia's mother. Well, one of her mother's at least. "The Ministry of Investigation's judgment should be immanent."

Sorean shook his head. "That may not be enough. I myself must shine a light on the truth.

"Agreed," Kalian replied.

Melia had a very sad look on her face. She couldn't believe that he own mother would do such a thing. She felt like crying right there.

"Melia," Sorean spoke to get her attention.

"Your Majesty?" she replied.

"You have returned unharmed from the Tomb. The forefathers have spoken."

Melia should've been happy at hearing this, but somehow she just felt worse. "But…if it hadn't been for Shulk…"

Sorean stopped her. "Kalian has already informed me of what happened. There is no reason to doubt your legitimacy to the throne."

"Believe in yourself, crow princess," Kalian said, smiling.

"Brother…" Now Melia really felt like crying at this, but out of joy after hearing her big brother's support.

"Tomorrow will be the investiture ceremony," Sorean stated. "At the appointed time, you will become successor. Be proud!"

Melia nodded. "I will."

"Not to interrupt, but there's still one more matter that we must address," Lorithia spoke up. She was the current head of the Ministry of Investigation. "The boy that came falling out of the sky."

"Ah yes," Alvis agreed. "A very unexpected occurrence. And an unusual one at that."

"Yes, his er…entrance was quite the spectacle," Kalian said, "but a bit odd. There is absolutely nothing above this city for any one to fall from. Aside from Prison Island, this is the highest point on Bionis."

"So he just fell straight from the sky then?" Melia asked, not believing a word of what she just said. "I find that rather preposterous. But then again, it wouldn't be the first strange thing I've encountered since I met Shulk."

"Do we have an identity for him?" the emperor inquired Lorithia.

"We are currently searching the Tower's database to find out exactly who he is, Lorithia replied, "but so far we have been unsuccessful. We haven't even been able to uncover a single clue. It's almost like he never existed before now."

"That's not all that is strange about him," Alvis added.

"What do you mean?" Kalian asked.

"That boy…I could not sense any ether from him."

"What? But that's impossible!" exclaimed Melia. "Everything that lives on Bionis is composed of ether. It's impossible for anyone be able to live without it in their bodies."

"And yet this one does," Alvis stated. "But there something else that's strange about him."

"Such as?" Lorithia's interest was piqued.

"I could sense something else inside of the boy's body. Something powerful. Something…that I can't really put into words. I don't believe that boy is from Bionis or even from the Mechonis. In fact, he may very well not be from this world."

Everyone in the room went silent at this. A Homs that was from somewhere beyond the bodies of the two titans? But how is that possible? No other place else exists in the world. There was only an endless sky and ocean. Before anyone could start verbally asking these questions, two High Entia guards came bursting into the Great Hall.

"Your Majesty!" one of them yelled. "That boy's body has been analyzed!"

"What did you find?" Kalian asked.

"Well, the results are…baffling, to say the least," the other guard replied. "His body is…unlike anything we've ever seen. It's…very hard to describe. You may want to see it for yourself. Shulk and his friends too."

"Very well," Sorean replied. "You two," he turned to two of the guards who were in the meeting. "Go and fetch Shulk and his friends and tell them to meet me in the medical bay."

"Yes sir!" The guards quickly rushed off.

" _A Homs that isn't a Homs,"_ Sorean thought to himself. _"I feel this is the beginning to something even bigger than the Mechon, or even the Bionis."_

…

"This is unbelievable!" Sharla exclaimed with astonishment, after looking at the boy's body. The boy in question was sound asleep on an X-ray wearing a white patient's cloak. "This boy has the physical appearance of a Homs, but there's no way he can be a Homs! In fact this boy should be dead!"

"Why's that?" Reyn asked, not understanding the situation.

"Most of his internal organs are gone."

"Gone?" Dunban was puzzled at this. "You mean they were removed?"

"No, not removed," Sharla replied. "Just…gone. Missing. Like he was never born with them. Heart, lungs, stomach, kidneys, they're not there. Even his skeleton and muscles are missing!"

"That doesn't seem physically possible," Shulk said, completely baffled by this. "He doesn't have an internal bone structure, and yet we clearly saw that he was able to move around just fine before he fainted."

"Not Hom-Hom have no tummy? Then how does not Hom-Hom eat?" Riki of course had food on the brain.

"You said most of his organs are missing," Dunban said. "What organs does he have?"

"Only three," replied Sharla. "He has a brain, a nervous system, and…um…reproductive organs…oddly enough…"

There was a moment of awkward silence. Reyn coughed.

"Um…there is actually one more thing that I found in his body," Sharla continued, breaking the silence. "It's where his heart should be. It's some kind of purple orb. And it's emitting some type of energy that I have never seen before. It's highly likely that energy is what's supplementing his heart and keeping him alive."

"What kind of energy is it?" Shulk asked.

"I don't know. It's definitely not ether, of that I'm certain."

"Interesting," Alvis said.

Just then, Shulk started to clutch his head and groan in pain.

"Shulk?!" Reyn exclaimed. "What's wrong?!"

The Monodo suddenly activated on Shulk's back with a crackle of electricity! He was having a vision. But this vision was not like the others. It was hazy just like most of his visions, but this one felt more forced. That it was being forced into his head. In his vision, he saw the same mysterious boy, fighting against the Mechon with his bare hands. But they looked different. The whole of the lower half of his arms were covered in a dark purple flame, same with his lower legs. They tore through the mechanical bodies of the Mechon, and brutally crushed and mutilated the bodies of other monsters. He was also firing orbs of dark energy from his hands, destroying his enemies upon impact, as well as summoning demonic specter forms of his hands and feet to crush and pulverize anything that stood in his way. At then end, the boy let out a monstrous roar, and a spectral monster with azure eyes and mouth appeared behind him in a brilliant blaze of dark purple. The vision ended at that, with Shulk gasping for breath.

"Shulk!" cried Melia, rushing to Shulk's side.

"What the hell was that about?!"Reyn exclaimed, worried about his best friend.

"Another vision, perhaps?" Dunban asked

Alvis came by Shulk, placed his hands in his shoulders and gave him a serious look. "What did you see?" he asked Shulk.

Shulk was still trying to gather both his breath and his thoughts. "Aah…th-the vision I just had, it…it wasn't like the others I've had…it was different."

"In what way?" Alvis inquired.

"It…it hurt. This vision, it…it felt like it was forced into my head." Shulk continued. "It…it was about that boy…he was…fighting…he was fighting the Mechon and dozens of monsters. With his bare hands! And the way he fought was brutal. He showed no mercy to his foes. And at the end of it, there was this…terrifying looking specter monster that appeared behind the boy as he roared furiously. It seemed to be apart of him."

The room was silent as Shulk spoke; everyone's eyes were wide with fear.

"And that's not all," Shulk added. "The Monodo…it was…it was afraid. It feared that boy. Whatever he is, he's not a Homs."

"Is he an enemy?" asked Kalian warily.

"I don't know. I never saw him fighting us in the vision."

Just then, the boy started to groan groggily.

"He's waking up!" Melia exclaimed.

"Stay calm," Dunban said to everyone. "Let's all give him some space and be polite. This may be our only chance to find out about him. Let's not frighten him or give him a reason to mistrust us."

"I agree," Alvis.

…

Once again my vision was blurry as I opened my eyes. I still had a headache, but nowhere near as bad as when I touched that purple orb. Other than that, I felt fine, just a little dizzy. As my vision began to clear, I noticed that I was in a platinum plated room. It looked around at wear I was, and concluded that I was in some sort of medical bay, lying on a surprisingly comfortable metal bed, which was attached to what I could only assume was an X-ray machine. I was wearing a white cloak, probably for patients to wear. Which was good because I was naked before this.

As I continued to look around the room I saw that I was not alone. There were about eleven people in the room; five of them looked like pretty normal, but the rest had angel wings on their heads. And there was also a really round furry thing that looked like it was WAY to happy.

One of them was blonde and wore red and purple clothes, and was carrying what appeared some kind of red-sheathed sword.

Another one had orange hair with a very muscular build. He wore some type of…I dunno, tight fitting tank top that showed off his muscles, and he appeared to be carrying some kind of weapon that was a cross between a shield and a javelin.

There was a woman there who had dark skin, long black hair, and was wearing some pretty casual blue and orange clothes, but it was a little too revealing around the chest area and midriff. She was also carrying a pretty big sniper rifle on his back.

There was another man with long brown hair and a thin beard. He was wearing some very gentlemen like clothes, the kind that you would normally find in the Victorian era. His right arm appeared to be limp and a black veil covered it. He was carrying a type of katanta sword that was sheathed right under his disabled right arm. His appearance gave off an aura of dignity, respect, and determination.

The last one seemed to be about the same age as the blonde guy. He had tan skin and grey hair. Most of his clothes were a dark blue, complete with a hooded jacket that was outlined in grey fur. He also was wearing a necklace that had a small key attached to it. If it had some significance, I couldn't figure out what it was. Unlike the other five, he didn't appear to be bearing a weapon.

And now for the angel wing people. There were six of them. One of them was a very petite girl who looked to be about the same age as Blondie and grey head. She was decked out a pretty fancy purple and light blue dress; she was probably of royalty. There was a tall young adult who seemed to be very polite and was also wearing clothing that showed signs of royalty. An elderly man stood next to him, appearing to be very wise. He also looked like royalty. And then there was a woman who didn't look a day over thirty. Unlike the others, she was wearing a sort of red uniform that kinda showed off her cleavage. The aura she gave off burned with a sense of authority. I wasn't too particularly sure I was gonna get along with her. The other two angel winged people appeared to be doctors, as they were wearing what could be described as white lab coats. All of them had silver colored hair and deep azure eyes. Most of them had pointed ears and the wings on their heads were quite large. I was wondering if they could fly with them. The only one who didn't have pointed ears was the small girl, and her wings were rather short in comparison to others.

As for the fuzz ball thing…like I said, he looked like he was going to explode with happy energy. He wore a small orange and blue jacket and was carrying a funny looking club that had a face and teeth. It looked like something a kid would make. Actually this thing, what ever it was looked like a kid.

"Okay, so three questions," I asked, extremely confused. "Where am I, who are you people, and _what_ are you people?"

"We actually had some similar questions about you," came a reply from the young adult. His voice was calm, polite, and had an English accent, which sounded really good. "Mostly about who and what you are."

I raised an eyebrow at that last part. "Uh, wait a second…what do you mean by ' _what I am?'_ I'm perfectly normal. I'm a human being, just like these guys," I said pointing to the five normal people. "What I find strange are the people that have angel wings on their heads and…" I looked over to the fuzz ball. "Whatever that's supposed to be."

Everyone looked at me like I was a nutcase. Then much to my surprise, the fuzzy guy spoke. "Not Hom-Hom talk funny," he said, with confusion in his eyes.

"Uh…okay, yeah this coming from the giant Furbie that apparently talks in third person."

Once again, more strange looks.

"Um…our race is called the Homs," the blonde guy said. "We've never heard of anything called a human before. The winged people are the High Entia."

"And this fur ball here is a Napon," said the muscular guy, picking up the…um, Napon by his hair.

"Heropon Riki is Heropon!" the Napon exclaimed, a bit miffed at muscles for picking him up like some kind of plushie.

"And Riki is right, you're talking like a bit of a looney right now. Where on Bionis are you from?" Muscles continued, dropping the furball.

"What the hell is a Bionis?"

I got even more looks at that comment.

"Okay, it's official," Muscles said. "He's a looney." This earned him a slap across the head from the sniper rifle lady. "Ow!"

"Reyn! Manners!" the lady said sternly.

"Sorry," Muscles apologized.

I was really confused by all this. "Where I come from I've never heard of a place called Bionis, or even seen anyone that resembles a…what were you called again, High Entia or a Napon. And I've certainly never heard the word Homs before. Odd question, but…am I dead by any chance?"

"No," replied the sniper girl, "you appear to be very much alive, despite not having any lungs, kidneys or a heart."

I could faintly hear the sound of glass shattering inside my head just as she finished that sentence. "Wait…run that by me again…?"

"You only have three internal organs," one of the doctors said. "You have a brain, a nervous system, and reproductive organs. Four actually if you consider that strange orb where your heart should be."

"What orb?" I asked. One of the doctors then pulled up a holographic display of an X-ray scan of my body. And what I saw freaked me out. I was missing a shit load of my internal organs! I only had three! The exact same three that the doctor described! I was even missing my skeleton, muscles and blood veins! "What the fuck?! That's-no, no that can't be right, I do not have only those, I…what the hell happened to my body?! How can I still be alive?!" I then noticed something weird in the spot where my heart should've been. I was indeed an orb, but it looked exactly like the orb I picked up in the Timeless Void. And that's when everything in my head started to click into place.

"You," I said to the guy with the Victorian outfit. "Give me your sword."

He looked taken aback by this. "I beg your pardon..?"

"Just give me the sword, there's something I need to check."

He hesitated for a moment before he answered. "Alright," he replied and then handed me his katanta. It was really sharp. Perfect for what I was trying to do. I knelt down by the side of the X-ray bed and rested my left arm on it's surface.

"Wait, what are you doing?" one of the doctors, asked warily. I ignored him and pressed the black of the sword against my shoulder.

"Stop!" the blonde guy called out. But by the time he had spoken, I had already made a swift and hard stroke with my right hand, completely slicing off my left arm. I screamed in pain. That. HURT! I immediately dropped the sword and clutched my left arm socket, still screaming bloody murder. I heard a few gasps and screams of terror from the audience. The doctors were about to rush towards me when the grey haired guy stopped them.

"Wait," he simply said. He then looked at me severed left arm. I turned to look at it, and was shocked to find it disintegrating into a dark purple flame until there was no trace of it left.

"What the hell…?" I said in disbelief. I turned to look at the others and their eyes were wide with shock. Can't say I blame them, I mean I was kinda freaking out too. And to top it off my arm socket all of a sudden stopped hurting. I wasn't even bleeding either, and I didn't feel weak from loosing an arm! I slowly got up to my feet, still a little freaked out at myself.

"Why in the world would you do that to yourself?!" shouted the small girl.

"I had to be sure of something," I said. "Hey, am I bleeding?" I turned to show my socket, and every one took a few steps back like I was some kind of monster.

"W-well no," replied the sniper lady with a shaky voice. "But there does appear to be some…um…dark purple clouds inside your body."

That sounded way too familiar. "Huh…I see. So I was right…" I then just got hit with a slight migraine. I clutched my head with my remaining arm, and grunted a little bit. This wasn't a full-blown head ace, just a slight pinch. I felt as if my brain expanded a bit as some kind of new knowledge about myself entered my head. Immediately I began to think of my left arm growing back. And then as if on cue, a dark purple flame shot out of my arm leaving a trail of similar colored clouds that molded into the shape of my severed arm. Skin then appeared to materialize on to the mold, followed by the missing left sleeve of the robe I was wearing. Feeling immediately returned to my left arm, and I could move it instantly.

"Okay," I said. "That was a little freaky. But pretty cool. Gonna take some getting used to though."

"Incredible," the grey haired guy remarked.

"How did you do that?" asked the young adult.

"I'm not really sure," I said as I picked up the Victorian guy's sword. "I just kinda figured out how to do it. I thought about my arm returning and then it happened." I handed back the sword. "Here, sorry if I gave you guys a little scare. I kinda scared myself too."

"Well I will admit," the man replied. "I was both a terrifying and an amazing spectacle to watch."

"What exactly _are_ you?" asked the elderly man.

"Right," I said, "I haven't introduced my self. Ahem. Sorry about freaking you people out, but I had to be sure that the X-ray scan was not broken. Anyways, my name is Andrew Hindle. You can just call me Andrew, though. And like I said, where I come from, I'm not referred to as a Homs. I am a human. Although after seeing what I just did, I guess I'm not even that anymore. I'm not sure what I am now." I paused, trying to comprehend what I just said. "As for where I am, I'm from the state of Maryland."

"Where's that?" asked the blond guy.

"Located in America, which is the continent on the western hemisphere of Earth."

There was a bit of silence after I said that, until the Victorian gentleman spoke up. "I've never heard of those places before. Are they on Bionis?"

"What exactly is Bionis?" I asked.

"How could you not know?" Muscles said, dumbfounded. "It's the giant dead body that we live on."

"Uh…what?"

It was the grey haired guys turn to speak. "Our world is comprised of an endless sea and sky. Standing motionless in the massive body of water are the dead remains to two giant titans. The Bionis and the Mechonis. We Homs, High Entia, and Napon are the beings that live on the body of the Bionis."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, back up. You're telling me that you live on the bodies of a giant dead…thing?"

Everyone nodded. "Welp, that settles it. I am a long way from home."

"But where on our world is that exactly," asked the young adult.

"Nowhere apparently," I replied. "I've never heard of the Bionis, Mechonis, Napon, or High Entia before now. They don't exist in my home. This is gonna sound crazy, and I myself find it hard to believe, but it's the only explanation I have. I'm from another world. Another dimension, if you will."

The room went silent after that.

"I find that preposterous," the small girl said.

"Hey, that's all I've got right now. And besides you just saw me do some really weird shit tonight, that should be proof enough." Another thought just entered my mind. "Actually, scratch that. Cover your eyes."

"Why?" asked the sniper lady.

"Because I'm about to disrobe and get dressed."

"With, what exactly?" the lady in red spoke for the first time.

"You'll see. Please just cover your eyes until I say it's okay to look again, alright?"

Everyone didn't bother to argue and did so. I then proceeded to undo my robe. I held out my right hand and envisioned a pair of underwear appearing in my hand. Sure enough, in a burst of purple flame, a pair of briefs appeared in my hand. Smiling, I quickly slipped them on. "Okay, I've got undergarments on, you can look now."

Everyone uncovered their eye, shocked to see the sudden appearance of the one piece of clothing on me. The small girl blushed a bit, probably from seeing my body, while the woman in red appeared to be admiring me.

"Where did you get that from?" asked the young adult.

"Would you believe me if I said I pulled out of thin air?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"Then prepare to have your minds blown." I rose up my right hand again, and a pair of blue jeans suddenly appeared. I quickly put them on and then summoned a black leather belt to place around the waist of my pants, followed by my favorite blue tee shirt that said "Surf" on it, and a picture of some ocean waves. I then materialized my favorite Ocean City New Jersey jacket, along with my blue shaded sunglasses and black Sanheiser head phones with a long curly cord and hung that around my neck. Lastly, I snapped my fingers, and immediately, a dark purple portal that was outlined by outer ridges of a clockwork gear. This portal led straight back into the Timeless Void. All I had to do was imagine it and voila! There it was. But I wasn't going back in there, at least not yet. What I did instead was pull out the remaining pieces from my iPod with something that could be described as telekinesis, and almost by magic, stitch them back together in mid air, fixing it. I then connected my headphones to the iPod, slid my sunglasses onto the top of my head, placed my headphones around my ears and tried to play music on the iPod. And it worked like it was brand new.

"WOO! BOO YA, I AM BACK!" I yelled taking off my headphones. "And before you asked, I don't really know how I did that, I just thought about doing it, and it happened."

Everyone was looking at me with bewilderment. "Riki likey like Andy the Not Hom-Hom. Riki ask Andy to be Heropon's new sidekick!" The Napon, apparently named Riki, was excitedly bouncing up and down.

"Okay," Muscles said with a huge grin. "Now that was pretty cool."

"Very cool," added the blondie.

"You're going to have to teach me how to do that," the sniper girl said.

"Remarkable," said the Victorian guy.

"Very impressive," the grey haired guy commented.

"Well, I do suppose that alternate dimensions are a possibility after seeing that," the small girl reluctantly said. The other High Entias looked just as impressed.

"Well, I still don't exactly know what I did, but thanks…um…who're you guys again?"

"Hm? Oh right, we never introduced ourselves," the bonde realized. "I'm Shulk."

The Muscle guy raised his hand. "Reyn. And even though I just met you, you're alright in my book."

"Sharla," said the sniper lady. "And I'm glad to see that I may not have to use my medical skills on you."

"I am Dunban. A pleasure to meat you," the Victorian guy said.

"Melia Antiqua, princess to His Majesty Sorean Antiqua," said the little girl, proudly.

"Heropon Riki, at friends' service!"

"I am Emperor Sorean Antiqua, the current ruler of the High Entia, and Melia's father," the elderly man introduced himself.

"And I am her brother, Kalian Antiqua," the young adult revealed.

"I am Lorithia, the head of the Ministry of Investigation," the woman in red revealed.

"And I am known as Alvis," the grey haired guy politely said. "And might I say, that it is an honor to be in the presence of a being from a distant world."

"Are you kidding? The honor is mine to even be in a different world! Especially to have met royalty right off the bat! Oh, speaking of which," I knelt down on one knee in front of the Emperor. "I am extremely sorry for any damage and commotion that I might have caused upon my arrival. If it's any consolation, I offer myself and services in anyway that I can in order to help repair any damage that I might have done."

For some reason everyone laughed at that. "What?" I asked, a little confused.

"You just went from an energetic stranger to a humble stranger!" Reyn laughed. "Good on ya!"

Even the Sorean was chuckling at this. "Hahah, oh, Andrew, that is very kind and gracious of you. I accept your apology, but you need not worry. The only damage that's been done is a small hole in the dome above our city where you entered."

"Yeeeaaahh…" I said, scratching the back of my head in embarrassment. "I've always wondered what it felt like to free fall, but never like that." Everyone chuckled at that again.

"Why Andy not have clothes on?" Riki asked me.

"Um…yeah, you see that purple orb that's in my chest?" I pointed to the X-ray scan. "I came across that thing in here." I snapped my fingers, and the portal to the Timeless Void opened up next to me. "This leads to a rift between time and space. It's a dimension between dimensions in other words. I like to call it the Timeless Void, and as that name implies, time does not exist in there. Along with pretty much everything else. When I found that strange orb, it forcibly slammed itself inside my body, followed by a pain that I can only describe as my body being ripped apart from the inside out. Man did that hurt like hell."

"That was about the last thing I remembered before I blacked out from the pain. And when I came to I was naked. After that I came across some kind of…space time distortion in the Timeless Void, and when I got to close to it, it pulled me in, and that's about when I crash-landed here. And then I find out that my body's completely different from what it should be. So that only leaves me to believe that the orb I got kinda ended up destroying my former body, and my clothes along with it. I'm pretty sure what ever that thing is, it should've killed me, but here I stand. I think I just got lucky."

"What exactly were you doing in that place?" Kalian asked me curiously.

I immediately got a sad look on my face and sighed. "Long story short, my world is currently being destroyed, I was blamed for it, my life was stolen from me, and I was banished to the Timeless Void, completely locked out of my world. I really don't want to talk about it."

Everyone in the room had a serious look their faces, and some even looked sad. "My apologies," Kalian immediately said. "I did not realize that was a sensitive subject."

"No, no, it's fine, really. Maybe one day when I feel like it. But right now…that was the worst day of my former life."

The Emperor cleared his throat. "Well, now that we have solved the mystery of the new arrival," he turned to Shulk. "Shulk, I would like to summon you to the Audience Chamber. There is something you and I need to discuss, as you are the wielder of the Monodo. And Andrew," he turned back t me. "You are invited as well since you are new to this world. There are few things you need to be acquainted with."

"I would be honored." I replied humbly.

Sorean and the rest of the High Entia left the room after that.

"Hey, Andrew," Sharla asked. "What kind of clothes are those? I've never seen anything like them."

"Oh, these? These are clothes from my world. This is basically my favorite outfit to wear. If you couldn't tell, blue is my favorite color."

"What about that little device you pulled out of the…what did you call it again? The Timeless Void?" Shulk asked me. "What does that thing do? And what of that black thing around your neck?"

"All kinds of things," I replied. "It's a piece of technology from my world. It's called an iPod. This particular model is known as an iPod touch. It has many functions, like taking pictures, watching movies, playing games, reading books, but it's primary function is listening to music. And as for what's around my neck, these are headphones. They're basically like portable speakers that you wear on your head. When I plug its cord into my iPod the music gets projected from the headphones and into my ears. I'm SO glad to have it working again!"

"Why's that?" This came from Reyn.

"I love music. And I mean I REALLY love music. It's part of my life and who I am. It was pure torture not being able to listen to my music while I was stuck in the Timeless Void." I placed my headphones on and qued a somber instrumental track called "Final Hours." I closed my eyes at the eerie and sorrowful tune, picturing my loved ones in my head. "Sometimes I listen to music that matches what I am feeling."

"What are you listening to right now?" Melia asked.

I unplugged my headphones and played the music from the iPod's built-in speaker. "It's called final hours. And right now, as I listen to it, I'm thinking of home." I did my absolute best to fight against my tears. "It's being destroyed as we speak. And I have no way of getting back, no way of knowing what's happening back home. Are my family and friends still alive? Do they believe the lies about me? Is everyone dying? I have no way of knowing. And without anything to distract me in the Timeless Void, that was all I could think about. I probably drove myself insane with those thoughts."

Everyone looked at me with sorrow and sympathy in their eyes. Even Riki looked sad. I stopped the music, put away my iPod, took off my headphones, and rested them on my neck.

"Well, come on Shulk. The Emperor has requested an audience with us. We'd better not keep him waiting."

Shulk smiled at this. "Right," he said.

…

As Shulk and I approached the Audience Chamber, there was a High Entia Imperial Guard waiting for us. He said that only Shulk and I were allowed beyond. Everyone else had to wait for us. The Guard then escorted us to where Kalian and the Emperor himself were waiting for us. Sorean first spoke to Shulk.

"Shulk, forgive us for detaining you earlier," he said. Then he turned to me, "And Andrew, I wish to offer my apologies for making you feel uncomfortable, and to welcome you to the world of the Bionis, and to this city, Alcamoth, the High Entia capital."

"Hey, no apologies needed, Your Majesty. I'm just glad I finally found people to talk to again."

He smiled at hearing that. "Shulk, you and I are not of the same people. But I must say this. Thank you for saving my daughter. It was no small feat."

"Not at all," Shulk replied. "I too must apologize for meddling in your customs. We should not have interfered."

"Yes," I spoke up. "and I should also apologize for scaring everyone with that display and for having you to busy yourself with coming to see an otherworldly peasant like me."

"My daughter is a lucky girl to have met such unselfish people," Sorean stated. "In the times to come, a ruler will need support from individuals like you. And Andrew," he turned to me. "You need not fret over the matter. I am actually quite glad to have met someone such as you."

I smiled, a little embarrassed at that.

"Shulk," he continued. "I hear you seek the Mechon."

" _Mechon?"_ I thought. _"What are those?"_

"Yes," Shulk answered. The Mechon devastated our homes, and we lost many loved ones."

Ah. So they were Shulk's enemy.

"Revenge is your goal?" The Emperor asked.

"It is." This was Shulk's answer. That actually surprised me. Shulk seemed like a very timid guy that wouldn't even hurt a fly. Whatever the…what were they…Mechon did to him must've really made him upset.

"You are honest," Sorean commented.

"I do not want to hide our true intentions. Our very existence is at stake."

"Unwavering too. Shulk, you are the master of the Monodo," Sorean continued. "But there is something that must be said."

"What is it?"

"Long before our forefathers built this empire," the Emperor began, "Two titans, the Bionis and the Mechonis, fought a vicious battle. Is this known among Homs?"

"Yes," Shulk replied. "It is told to us as children."

" _Two titans,"_ I thought to myself. _"Could they be talking about the same two giants that I saw in the image of that sphere?"_

"The two fought and died," Shulk continued. "Killing many creatures in the process. Their remains became our worlds, bringing forth new life on Bionis. That's how we we're made."

Gotta admit, the thought of this civilization and people living on the dead body of a colossal giant was pretty amazing. Emperor Sorean nodded as Shulk's answer. "The Bionis shall awaken once again," he then said.

Uh oh. Not really sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing. I mean, if the body of the Bionis started to move again, that'd be one hell of an earthquake.

"Alvis told me the same thing," Shulk replied.

"Um, Your Majesty?" I spoke up. "Not to interrupt but, the new guy's a little lost here. I get the fact that this world is made up of two giant titans, but what exactly is this…um….Mono-thingy?

Sorean turned to me. "The Monodo is the very weapon that Shulk possesses."

I looked at the odd red sword on Shulk's back. "What's so great about it? I mean, yeah, it doesn't look like a normal sword, but other than that, I don't really see anything else."

"The Monodo is the sword that the Bionis once used to fight against the Mechonis," Shulk explained. "Hardly any of the Homs in our world are able to use the Monodo freely, except for Dunban and I. Though the one exception for Dunban was that he was able to use the Monodo for sheer force of will. And that was far too taxing on his body. But as for me…I still don't understand why, but…I am able to control the Monodo freely. Almost as if I was meant to."

"Wait, you mean to tell me that the very giant that you live on used that tiny little sword against the other giant? I find that a little hard to believe."

"This coming from someone who's from another world and can regenerate his limbs after they have been severed?" Shulk deadpanned.

"Hmm…touché," I replied.

"Well, that story is really more of a myth, so your skepticism is understandable. Even I'm not really sure if it's true or not."

"Regardless, that sword must be pretty unique if not just anyone can control it."

"You have no idea."

I smiled at hearing this. "Tell me."

"Well, to summarize," Shulk began, "This is more than just a sword. It can act as a shield and can aid us to evade even the most deadly of attacks. It is also the only weapon that can deal a significant amount of damage to the Mechon army. With the exception of the faces."

I had wanted to ask Shulk about the Mechon, but I decided to ask a more important question to the Emperor. "Your Majesty, you said the Bionis is going to awaken again? How exactly is that possible if it's dead?"

Sorean turned around to face a tablet behind him that was inscribed with writing that I couldn't make out. "This is an inscription left by our forefathers," he said. "It is written, 'Decendants of Antiqua, when the ether cries, the Bionis awakens. Mistake not the signs and heed the sword's return. Trap it's power and assure eternal prosperity."

I turned to Shulk. "I understood absolutely none of that. What's ether?"

"Ether is the building block of all life on Bionis," he explained. "It is a key element that makes us who and what we are. All Homs and Napon have ether within them. The High Entia too. We are also able to use ether as an energy source."

I whistled in amazement. "Wow, that's pretty cool! Back in my world we don't have anything called ether. The building block for us is a self-replicating material called deoxyribonucleic acid. Or DNA for simplicity sake."

Shulk chuckled at that. "Tell that to Sharla and she'll want to analyze your body to learn more about it."

"And if I had my former body, I might be compelled to give her a sample of my blood. But as I am right now that's not possible. Still, this ether stuff sounds pretty neat."

"All life born on Bionis affects the ether," Sorean said. "The Mechon's assault is just the beginning. And these events were set in motion when you used the sword against them."

Shulk seemed taken aback by that. "We used it because we-"

"Because you needed to," the Emperor interrupted. "Without it, you would not have survived. I cannot dispute this fact. I believe the inscription speaks of these very events with the Mechon. But if their assault continues, if more lives are lost…soon the Bionis will awake, and not only the High Entia, but all life will perish! Do you see, Shulk?"

"You're talking about total extinction," Shulk replied.

Yup, that settled it. The Bionis awakening definitely sounded like bad news. And not only that, but these Mechon things didn't sound like a laughing matter. Whatever they were, they sounded Tonka tough if they had mostly rely on Shulk's weapon to defeat them.

"That sounds like that worst Monday ever," I said.

"Correct," Sorean said back. "Which is why the Mecon's invasion must be stopped."

"Then you'll help us?" Shulk asked. "Your Majesty, we need imperial sanction to enter Prison Island. Will you permit us entry?"

Sorean was silent for a moment before he answered. "What will you do there?"

"I saw it in a vision," was Shulk's answer. "We were fighting a faced Mechon. They must pay for what they did."

A vision? What did he mean by that? _"Save that for some other time,"_ I thought.

"Then you will have seen him too," Sorean replied to Shulk.

"Who's 'him?'" I asked.

On Prison Island, our forefather's sealed something away," the Emperor explained. "Just as they did the Monodo. All records have been lost, and there is now no way to know what it was."

"Is it connected to the awakening of the Bionis?" Shulk inquired.

"I do not know," the Emperor replied. "But our forefathers must have had a good reason. We must trust their decision." There was a bit of silence as Sorean pondered Shulk's request. "Shulk, allow me some time to deliberate. Above all else, I will consider the safety of Bionis. You are our Bionis brethren. We will not ignore your plight."

"I understand. This is not our homeland," Shulk conceded. "If you decide to let us go, I will accept your decision."

"I am sorry," Sorean apologized.

It made sense. What ever this Prison Island was, if not even the Emperor of the High Entia knew what was sealed away there, there was no way of telling what would happen if that something got released. Still, whatever Shulk and his friends needed to there was probably very important. For his sake, I hoped Sorean would give them the okay.

"It's okay," Shulk said.

We were about to leave when the Emperor spoke up again. "One more thing," he said.

"What's up?" I replied.

"I ask the both of you, not as Emperor Sorean Antiqua, but as a father. I do not demand that you act as Melia's protectors. But I would be honored if you would be her friends. This is my humble request."

"It would be my honor," Shulk replied, graciously.

"Well," I said scratching the back of my head, "I just got here and I kinda just met your daughter, so I really don't know anything about her. However, she seems like a fairly nice person, all polite and very composed. And if it is a request from Your Majesty, I don't really see any reason why I shouldn't oblige. It would be my honor as well."

Sorean smiled at my response. "Andrew, you are indeed a kind person. Which reminds me, since you are far away from your home world, we would like to offer you shelter here in Alcomoth."

"Technically you have never existed before today in our records," Kalian added. "But we are currently working on creating an identification for you. But we will require some personal information from you. If that is alright."

"Fine with me. But a lot of it may sound a little strange to you."

"That is quite alright. You may explain to us what we do not understand to the best of your ability," replied Kalian.

"Thank you," I said. "Um before I go, there is one thing I wish to ask."

"Yes?"

"Is there like…um, some sort of library in this city? Since I might be here for a while, until I can find a way back home I might be here for a while, so I would like to familiarize myself with the history of this world along with anything else that I might need to know."

"That is a very light request," Sorean said, "and I do believe we can oblige."

"There are records of this world's history and inhabitants in the lower levels of the Tower of Investigation. Normally, you would have to have identification to access, but I see that you would like to learn sooner rather than later. I will send word to Lorithia to allow you to enter when you arrive there. She will let you look around for as much as you like."

"Thanks a lot," I said smiling.

"And please," Kalian said again. "Relax and enjoy yourself. You, along with Shulk and his friends are honored guests of the High Entia. Make yourselves at home."

"I'm truly grateful for your hospitably, really," I said, kneeling down. "But in return, I humbly ask that you not trouble yourselves too much over a stranger like myself."

Everyone got a good chuckle out of that. Soon afterwards, Shulk and I turned to leave.

"His language may be a bit vulgar at times, but he genuinely seems to be very kind," Kalian observed. "It's hard to believe that Shulk's vision of him was as terrifying as he described."

"Yes," Sorean said, "but Shulk said the Monodo was afraid of him. There has to be a reason for that."

"Do you think we should tell him?"

"No, at least not yet. For now it's best that we not scare him. And besides, I actually would like to learn a bit about the world that he comes from."

…

"The Telethia are on the move," a deep voice from with in a golden-faced Mechon said. It was massive in size, larger than any of the other faced Mechon.

"Yes," a gentle female voice replied.

"That fleshy fool will go for the Monodo. What of the faces?"

"Repairs to Metal Face are complete."

"And Face Nemesis?"

"Nemesis is…" the woman hesitated. She was not sure how to respond.

"The Homs with the Monado," Golden Face said, ignoring the woman's hesitation. "He has reached Eryth Sea?"

"Yes."

"Then there is only one place for them to go. Yet he will not dare unleash such power."

The woman knew what Golden Face was talking about. He was determined not to let the Homs reach Prison Island.

"No matter," he said. "Bugs must still be exterminated. It is time to test our new toy." He then grabbed a giant spear with some sort of green liquid flowing through it, and prepared to give it to Metal Face.

The battle for Eryth Sea would soon begin.

"Commence the assault on Bionis."

AN: And now I am PUMPED to keep on writing! And I hope you are to keep on reading! So stay tuned!


	4. Chapter 2-What Am I If Not Human?

AN: NEEEEEEEEXT CHAPTER! Later on, around Valek Mountain, I plan on adding a character in the Xenoblade world that, personally I think deserves more attention. Who is that you ask? Meh, I'll leave you to figure that out. But I think you'll like what I come up with.

Okay, ON WITH CHAPTER ONE!

Chapter Two-What Am I If Not Human?

 _Your future is what you make of it._

 _Stand and fight for it if you must._

 **Bionis, High Entia Capital, Alcamoth, One month ago**

The Seer, Alvis, was in the Audience Chamber with the High Entia Emperor, Sorean Antiqua. Recently, Alvis had a vision of future events that he felt rather important. Very important, in fact. He had quickly requested to meet with Sorean and the Emperor, having trusted Alvis for many years, gladly agreed.

Sorean closed his eyes and concentrated on what Alvis was showing him in his mind. The visions he saw were blurry and very vague but there were some details he could make out. He saw himself standing in what appeared to be Prison Island, holding his Imperial Staff. It seemed like he was summoning something with it. Then there was an image of a strange purple skinned giant with long white hair. Sorean was standing in front of the giant along with a strange group of Homs, and one of them; a blonde wearing red and purple clothing, was wielding the Monodo! And stranger still, his daughter Melia was with them! Why was she with the Homs? The vision only got worse from there. A giant Mechon with a face and razor sharp claws opposed the strange group, with Melia fighting along side them. Then the Mechon thrust one of its deadly hands at the Emperor, with the vision suddenly ending in a blinding bright like.

Sorean opened his eyes with shock, rapidly trying to process what he just saw. "Can this be true?" he asked Alvis in disbelief.

Alvis knelt down on his knee and responded. "It will happen soon."

"I saw Melia…she was fighting a battle against a Mechon with a strange group of Homs."

"Yes," Alvis confirmed.

"That sword…could it be the…?" The Emperor was still having trouble believing what he saw. "Could it possibly…? And that…location…was it…?"

"The vision is a sign," Alvis stated. "By your will, it can be changed."

"Hmm…" the Sorean pondered this predicament. "For now, we must consider all things. Everything. The capital, and the lives of our people, depend on it."

 **Bionis, High Entia Capital, Alcamoth, Present Day**

The next day was pretty busy for me. I had been granted an unused guest room in Alcamoth by His Highness himself last night, and slept quit comfortably. The room was gold plated with a bathroom, nightstand, a window over looking the massive sea that this city floated over, and an extremely soft bed with clear white bed sheets. I slept comfortably that night, not awoken by anything but the sounds of the city in the morning. Though thinking about it now, I suppose the body I had didn't really need sleep since I no longer had an immune system. But my mind felt tired from being tossed into this new bizarre and amazing world.

First I decided to help out Kalian and the other High Entia in creating my identity for the Alcamoth records. The requirements for the identity were fairly simple. They just needed my name, gender, race, age, brief bio, and like and dislike. Since I didn't really know _what_ I was (I didn't have a human body anymore), I decided to go with "Formally Human." I had to help update their index in order to explain what a Human being was. I told them that we are similar to the Homs, the only difference being our biological make up. In my bio I had to describe that I was a citizen from another dimension, but my regular human body was destroyed upon arrival. I describe that the physical form I had was a just a shell of my original self.

Just reading that is bound to make people scratch their heads.

Afterwards, I headed over to the Tower of Investigation to do research on this world. Lorithia was there, waiting for me. She greeted me humbly and lead me down to the Tower' library. The library was enormous. The whole room was a giant circle, filled with bookshelves and data terminals. There were many other High Entias there in the library, all doing research of their own.

"Here you should find everything you wish to know," Lorithia told me. "These books are quite old. They date back to when the Homs first learnt to write. You'll find quite a bit about myth behind the Bionis and Mechonis and their origins."

"Cool," I said, smiling. "Thanks, Lorithia." I walked down the stairs and started to browse around the spines of the books. I found a few books on the myth behind the Bionis and Mechonis, and some records about historic events on Bionis. As I turned around to go to a nearby, I noticed that Lorithia was still looking at me in a way that…really made me feel uncomfortable.

"Um…is there any reason why you're staring at me like that?"

"Hmm?" she said, snapping out of what was probably a trance. "Oh, sorry, sorry, I was just…admiring you. I mean, well, you are an extremely rare person, being from a different dimension and all. Especially with that…unique body of yours."

That last part made me shiver. "Yeeeahh…well if you could like…not do that, I would really appreciate it. I mean, no offense but…it's um…kinda making me a little nervous."

She chuckled at that. "Oh don't worry your little head. You're much too young for me anyways." She began to leave. "Enjoy your time here."

As soon as she left, I turned around and opened my mouth, stuck out my tongue, pointed my finger to my mouth and went, "KKKKKKKKKCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Every single High Entia within earshot turned to face me, looking at me like I was crazy. "What?" I said. "Look, I'm just saying, one, she's not my type, and two, if I still had a stomach, I'd probably have to wash my mouth several times in a row." I then went over to an empty table, still getting a few strange glances, but other than that nothing else.

I spent a good portion of the day there. I read about the Bionis and the Mechonis, how the two of them fought for a very, very long time. The battle ended with both of their deaths, their lifeless corpses being the only remains of their fight. Only problem is most of this was legend. Aside from their bodies, there was no actual way to prove that these to great titans were once living. However, what Sorean said the other day made me think otherwise. I was still new to this world, and while I wasn't totally sold on the idea of two giant rock formations shaped like giants being able to move, the forefathers of the High Entia must've had some reason to write that precursor.

Moving on, I read more about the history of this world. Most of it was centered on the Bionis; there was barely any information on the Mechonis. Aside from the Mechon of course. Apparently, the inhabitants of Bionis, which were the Homs, Napon, and High Entia, have been at war with the mechanical army of the Mechonis for years. No one really knew why they were attacking the Bionis, but from what I was reading, they seemed to be hell bent on wiping out all life on Bionis. The most recent battle was on Sword Valley, on the sword of the Mechonis. Dunban fought in that battle, wielding the Monodo at that time. He single handedly wiped out the entire army on Sword Valley, but at the cost of his right arm. That explained why it was limp. And all of this happened one year ago in this world's time.

And now the Mechon had risen up again. But why?

I wasn't able to find that out in the library. They hadn't been recorded yet. So I left the library to find Shulk and the others. It wasn't until I went outside the Tower that I had realized that it was evening. Geez, how long was I in there?! It was then that I suddenly realized that tonight was the investiture ceremony. It would be then that Melia would officially become the successor to Sorean Antiqua. I needed to get caught up with Shulk and the others before then. So I headed back to the city and asked Kalian if he knew where they were, and he said they should be in the guest dinning room then showed me how to get there. I said thanks and went on my way.

…

"Hey guys!" I said when I arrived.

"Not Hom Hom Andy here!" Riki said, bouncing up and down excitedly.

"'Sup, Rik," I said, petting the Nopon's head. Riki giggled at my hand ruffling his fur.

"Andrew!" Shulk said with a smile.

"Oi there, new guy!" Reyn chimed in. "Where have you been all day?"

"Research in the Tower of Investigation. I figure I'd better brush up on the history of this world since I might be here for a bit. Don't wanna be out of the loop."

"A wise decision," Dunban commented. "What have you learned so far?"

"Almost everything. I know about the legend of the Bionis and Mechonis, and the war against the Mechon that ended one year ago. Or should've ended. Which brings me to why I'm here right now," I said as I sat in a chair. "If that war really did end, then why are the Mechon back? I remember the Emperor and Shulk talking about the Mechon like they were anything but a distant memory. And Shulk, you said you were out for revenge. Why?"

There was a moment of silence when I said that. They all looked at me with wary eyes

"Hey, guys please don't look at me like I'm some super villain that craves knowledge. As far as I'm aware, the only bad guys here are the Mechon, not me."

They still just looked at me. I sighed.

"It was my tone of voice, wasn't it? Ah, crap, I'm sorry. I always talk like that whenever I get serious about things."

"No, it's not that," Shulk said. "I don't believe you are a bad person, Andrew. From what I've seen so far you are a very swell person. It's just…my vision of you, it-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what?" I forgot that Shulk was talking about this with Sorean last night.

"Um, Shulk," Sharla chimed in. "Maybe we shouldn't-"

"Shouldn't what?" I asked.

They looked at me again with unsure eyes.

"Guys? Ground rule if you want to be my friend. Always. Tell me. The truth. If there is something about me that bothers you or scares you, please let me know. I know that to you guys I'm an unusual person, especially with what you saw last night. But please, please, please, don't look at me like I'm a monst…" I stopped for a second. "Oh."

A monster.

That's what I was now.

I was not human anymore.

I didn't have a human body.

The people of my world probably hated me.

To them I may as well be a monster.

"That actually makes sense when I think about it."

"Oi, now," Reyn said. "Whatever you're thinking you are, you're not."

"But that's what you're thinking isn't it?" I countered.

The tense silence continued for about a minute. Then Shulk finally spoke.

"The Monodo, the weapon I have, allows me to see very brief visions of the future," he said. "They are vague at first, but as time as time goes on, they start to become clearer. Usually they show me who will die. And my friends and I take it upon ourselves to keep that from happening along our journey. We've saved many people, but…there was one we couldn't…" Shulk trailed off for a bit, as though he was bothered by something.

"When I saw you in the medical bay, I had a vision of you. In that vision I saw you fighting against both the Mechon and various monsters. Your arms and legs were covered in dark purple flames, and you were smashing everything that stood in your way. Brutally, violently, without mercy. And at the end of it all, you let out a loud roar. And then there was some kind of demonic looking ghost that appeared behind you. It looked like it was a part of you. But the strangest part was…this vision was different than the others I've had. It was like it was…forced into my head and…the Monodo…it was scared of you…"

I let out a little half assed chuckle. "Yup…I guess really am a monster…even your sword thinks I am…I mean, I might as well be…I'm pretty sure my friends and family hate me now…and if they do…what's the point of me going back home…?" I looked back at them. "Do you know how long I was stuck in the hell I call my home now?"

"Are you referring to the Timeless Void?" Dunban asked. "I thought you said time doesn't exist in there."

"Yup, which means I have no idea how long I was in there. I could be over a hundred years old right now. And before you say I don't look it, that's probably because I couldn't age in the Timeless Void and this new body of mine probably doesn't age. Can you imagine being stuck in a dimension between time and space with nobody to talk to? I only had my thoughts. And those thoughts were filled with guilt. It drove me insane!" I leaned back in my chair. "Maybe I should just go back in there. It's where I belong at this point-"

As soon as I finished that sentence, Reyn rushed over and punched me square in the face, sending me flying out of my seat.

"Reyn!" I heard Sharla yell.

"I'm only gonna say this once to you. Shut up," Reyn said sternly. "Only the Monodo is scared of you. That doesn't mean we are! Okay, so yeah, you've got a weird body, yeah you're from another world, yeah you as a person are really and I mean REALLY weird. But, hey, isn't everybody weird in some way? And note the fact that I said PERSON. Not MONSTER. It don't matter _what_ you are. What matters is _who_ you are. And who are you? Andrew Hindle, that's who! You have emotions! You have a soul! You have a sense of self! You're not a monster! I've fought against countless monsters, and let me tell you, none of them had emotions or souls. You're a person! It don't matter one bit that you can't age or regenerate, what matters is that you remember _who_ you are!"

I just stared at him, dumbfounded, and clutched my cheek. I definitely was not expecting that. But a good smack across is probably what I needed. Actually I think I needed another.

"Reyn, hit me again."

"What?"

"I want you to hit me again."

Everyone just stared.

"As hard as you can. Harder than the last if possible."

…

"Please."

…

"Alright," he said. "You asked for it."

And then he really did punch me harder than last time. And it hurt like crap!

"OW! Ugh…ohhh…yeah, that hurt…that hurt…pain…I can feel pain," I said as I slowly got back up on my feet. "I'm alive…I am alive…different…but alive…I am Andrew Hindle…I am a person…a strange person…but I've always was even before all this…I don't know _what_ I am…but I know _who_ I am…I know who I am…and that's all I need…that's all I need…" I sighed with a feeling of renewal. "Sorry about that little drama scene guys."

"No apologies are necessary," Dunban said. "We all have our moments when we slip into madness."

"If Andy really is monster, then Andy is friendly monster," Riki said. "But Andy not monster. Not Hom Hom either. Or Nopon, or bird people. Andy is Andy!"

I laughed at that. "Thanks, Rik. I needed that. Guys, I promise, I am nothing like what Shulk saw in that vision, and I'll do everything that I can to keep myself from being like that. If there's anything that I do that freaks you out more than it normally should, please let me know. Okay"

Everyone nodded.

"Thanks. Oh, and Reyn?"

"Hmm?"

"You hit like a friggin' truck."

"Um…what's that mean."

I smiled. "Let's just call it a compliment."

Everyone then laughed. The tension that was once in the room had suddenly evaporated. And all of a sudden I felt much better.

After everyone in the room had calmed down, Shulk spoke up. "So, you wanted to hear our story?"

"Eh, you don't have to tell me if you don't want."

"It's the least we can do for you," he replied. "You are a guest in this world after all."

And so we talked until night fell. I learned about Shulk, Reyn and Dunban's home, Colony 9, located at the right foot of the Bionis. The Mechon's return started there, attacking Shulk's home, devouring people. And then there was this giant Mechon with a face. Metal Face it was called. Or him, since it spoke with a male voice. I learned that he had killed one of Shulk's dearest friends. A girl named Fiora. She was killed right in front of Shulk's eyes. And now he wanted revenge. I almost knew how he felt. I mean, I wanted revenge too. But it was different for me. Shulk then told me about how he came to meet Sharla, Riki, Melia, and various other faces. He told me about the places they've been to and the battles they've fought. Their journey had taken them all the way up to the Bionis's head; to the massive body of water that this city floats over. The Eryth Sea.

Currently Shulk and his friends were trying to get to a place called Prison Island. But the island itself wasn't like any island I've ever seen. It was a giant dark purple and blue rock that was floating above the sea. Shulk had a vision of him and his friends, along with Melia, fighting against Metal Face, giving him the ass kicking that he rightfully deserved. I had read that the Monodo could not do damage to the Homs, Napon or High Entia that live on Bionis, save for the various monsters. And Shulk told me that for some reason the Monodo couldn't hurt faced Mechon. They couldn't figure out why. And yet in the vision, Shulk was kicking Metal Face's tin can all over the place. This could only mean that there was something on Prison Island that Shulk needed in order to do damage to Face Mechon. But Sorean was very reluctant to allow them there because he really didn't know what was imprisoned there or what would happen if Shulk and his friends accidently ended up releasing it, whatever this "it" was.

"Hey," Reyn asked, noticing the stars in the sky. "What time is Melia's ceremony at?"

"Ah crap!" I exclaimed. "It's gonna start any minute! Where is it taking place?"

"In the plaza, I think," Dunban replied.

I clapped my hands, "Okay, then! Time to make a B-line for the…um…crap can't come up with anything that rhymes with 'lin e.' Ah, screw it, c'mon guys, let's go!" I rushed outside the room and to the teleporter that lead back to the Great Hall.

"I know I said a whole bunch of inspirational stuff to him," I heard Reyn say. "But I still think he's a looney."

I couldn't help but smile at that.

…

"Wow! Take a look at that!" Reyn exclaimed. "A High Entia air show!"

"Bird People fly higher than Nopon birds!" Riki shouted excitedly, making airplane sounds!

"Now that's awesome! I'd like to see the Air Force back in my world try to top that!"

There was a whole bunch of High Entia aircraft called Havres flying around. But they weren't like typical airplanes. They didn't have a cockpit; instead it was like a flying podium with wings. You didn't sit to fly it, you stood. And it's fuel source? Ether. And MAN was it wicked fast.

"Yeah," Reyn agreed. "They've got some neat tricks!"

Just then, holographic images of a girl wearing extravagant clothing and a prissy looking mask appeared all around the city.

"Hey, Shulk," I said, getting his attention. "Isn't that Melia up there?"

The both of us turned around to the balcony outside of the Great Hall. Sure enough, there was the same girl, along with a few imperial guards. Sorean and Kalian were there too. I was wondering why Melia had to disguise herself in front of all these people. And then it hit me; it was because that there were so many people that she had to disguise herself. Shulk told me that in the Tomb of the High Entia, some one had tried to assassinate her. Something about her blood being half Homs. That same assassin could be lurking anywhere in the crowd. Melia had a mask on in the Tomb, and now here. The assassin didn't know Melia's true face. That outfit was the only thing keeping her safe from possible death right now.

"By the authority of our divine ancestors," Melia's voice echoed throughout the city. "I, Melia Antiqua, am honored to accept the responsibility of becoming your next benevolent ruler. Should I be deemed unworthy of this calling, or fail to protect the ancestors of the Bionis, I promise here and now to throw myself on the mercy of you, the people!"

The crowd then went in an uproar of cheers and applause, all shouting Melia's name! And I found myself smiling and clapping with them. "Whoooooo!" I shouted. And then the night sky lit up with fireworks.

"Most majestic," Dunban said in amazement. "That fragile girl in the forest is a distant memory."

"But which one is the real Melia?" Sharla asked.

She had a point. The mask that she wore not only protected her identity, but it also hid who she really was. It was at this point that Sorean's request echoed in my mind.

" _I ask the both of you, not as Emperor Sorean Antiqua, but as a father. I do not demand that you act as Melia's protectors. But I would be honored if you would be her friends."_

I guess Shulk must've been thinking the same thing. "No," he said. "It's not like that. They're one and the same girl. I think."

I sighed at that, but with a smile "Y'know, Shulk that would've sounded much more profound if you left out those last two words." We both chucked at that.

"Maybe I should take should take some lessons from Reyn?"

"Yeah, and then you'll be the one throwing punches at me."

Everyone got a good laugh out of that.

…

Alvis was standing outside the capital staring off at Prison Island. No one could ever tell what was on his mind.

"And what did you see, Alvis?" Lorithia asked as she walked to him from behind.

"Oh, it's you," came the reply.

"Don't play games," the woman shot back sternly.

"No need to be angry," Alvis said. "I only wanted to analyze the boy. Which was the point, no?"

"Hmph."

"I did not interfere with your ministerial affairs. In fact you should be thanking me."

Lorithia relaxed a bit. "I wonder if he feels the same," she said.

"We have all the information we need," Alvis continued. "We know that such a Telethia cannot hurt them. You see…nothing can befall him before he sees his dream fulfilled. But enough about Shulk, what have you been able to gather about…what was his name again? Andrew?"

"Ah yes, the boy out of this world," Lorithia replied. "I will say that he has an adorable face. Especially when he blushes." She couldn't help but chuckle at that last part.

"Flirting with strangers now, are we?"

"Oh, hardly. He's cute but he's not my type. Besides, I doubt he and I would get along."

"Why do you think that?" Alvis inquired.

"From what I was able to gather, he has a free spirited soul. He is the type of person that does what he wants and thinks what he wants. For example, if we were to restrain him because he would interfere with our goals, and if he were to discover what our goals were, he most certainly fight back."

"And how do you think that would turn out?"

"Based on the Monodo boy's vision? Not well. For now it's best we leave him be."

…

Far off in the distance, an army of faced Mechon was flying from Galahad Fortress on the sword of the Mechonis. Amongst them was the face that Shulk swore to kill: Metal Face.

"Brand spanking new!" Metal Face's mechanical voice echoed joyously through the air. "Nothing like an ether change and a new paint job!"

Metal Face had to have some of his armor fixed up after his last fight with Shulk. He still wasn't sure how Shulk was able to damage him if the Monodo wasn't supposed damage faced Mechon. He could only assume that it was by sheer force of will. It bugged him that the boy hadn't discovered what that sword was truly capable of. But it didn't matter. Soon enough, the Monodo would be his.

"Hahah. We don't need her." Metal Face said to himself as he looked at the silver faced Mechon, Face Nemesis. He really didn't like how prissy her design was or how well mannered she was on the battlefield.

"Look at me, look at me!" he jeered. "Tch, goody two shoes." He then barrel rolled right next to Nemesis for one last taunt. "Let's see if you hold back the screams when is blade gets a taste of you!"

Nemesis just ignored him as they continued to fly towards Eryth Sea. It wasn't long before the mechanical army spotted a squadron of unmanned Havres flying towards them. The High Entia aircrafts immediately started to open fire.

"Hah! I love a warm welcome!" Metal Face said excitedly as he dodged the barrage of lasers. "Let's settle this, machine to machine!" Metal face then charged up a bright ball of electric energy from his scorpion tail-like cannon and fired.

…

All of us were back in the guest dinning room with the ceremony over.

"So they've got a new crown princess," Reyn said happily. "Three cheers for Melia!"

"Hip hip, horray!" I exclaimed.

"That's great and all but we're still no closer to that murdering faced Mechon," Sharla cut in.

" _Buzzkill,"_ I thought.

"Once we reach Prison Island, we'll get our chance," Shulk reassured everyone. "I've seen us there. It must be true."

"Shulk man," Reyn said. "Maybe we can still persuade big wings? Melia's crown princess now, I reckon the Emperor might change his mind."

"Maybe," Shulk replied, but not confidently.

"I wouldn't pursue that thought," I spoke up.

"Why not?" Reyn asked.

"Because nobody knows what's on Prison Island. Not even the even the Emperor. He wasn't kidding when he said all records on what's at that place were lost, and trust me, I've looked. No offense Shulk, but your vision didn't exactly specify what was gonna happen _after_ you take on Metal Face."

Dunban nodded, impressed with my knowledge. "You make a sound argument, Andrew. Indeed, there's more to this island than we know. Things are at play here that reach beyond our understanding."

The room went silent for a few moments. Then Riki spoke up.

"Dundun right! Riki and friends visit Melly now!"

"Hey!" Reyn said to Riki. "The adults are talking, pops!"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't Rik forty years old and a father on top of that?" I asked. Of course Riki did act more like a kid than an adult"

"Riki want to see Melly!" The Nopon protested. "Riki think Melly sad too."

"She might like the distraction," Sharla agreed. "All those stiff ceremonial duties…"

"Yeah," I said. "I can't imagine the life of royalty is easy, especially with what happened in the Tomb. But hey, not my call to make. Shulk, you know her a little better than the rest of us. It's your choice."

"Riki say yes!" Riki exclaimed Riki, flapping is wings making him float a little bit.

"Wait, what do you mean it's my choice?" Shulk asked me. "Didn't the Emperor give us both the same request?"

"Hmm?"

"He asked us both to be Melia's friend, didn't he?"

…

"You know what? He definitely did say that. And how exactly are we gonna be her friends if were sitting around in here? I say we go!"

"The I agree," Shulk said with a smile.

"Hold on now," Reyn interjected. "We don't even know where she is right now, how are gonna find her?"

I smiled. "I know just the person to ask," I said as I jumped off from sitting on the table and ran outside the room.

"You know Shulk," I heard Sharla said. "Andrew is a lot like you."

"How so?" he asked.

"Probably because the two of you think alike," Dunban said.

"We do?"

Once again, I found myself smiling at that. It felt extremely good to have people to talk to again.

…

I asked Kalian if there was any place in the capital that Melia usually hangs out. He said that there was a garden called the Imperial Villa. Melia usually spent most of her time there when she needed a breath of fresh air. Once again I said thanks and we took the teleporter that went to said garden.

The night sky was beautiful. It was completely lit up with stars, along with the occasional down fall of ether crystals. The concentration of ether in the Eryth sea was higher than anywhere else on the Bionis. Often times, mostly at night, the ether would crystalize and fall from the sky like mini-comets. There was nothing like this back in my world. Combine that with the view of the Mechonis in the distance and you get a sight that you could just stare at for hours and never get tired of it. The garden was also magnificent. It was full of vibrant and colorful flowers, ones that I have never seen before, and was pretty sure they didn't exist back in my world. And the smell, my God the smell! It smelled like heaven.

This world truly was full of beauty.

Sure enough, Melia was standing in the center of the garden, wearing her regular attire. She turned to face us, hearing the sound of our footsteps. "You came to see me?" she said with a look of surprise in he eyes.

"Riki's friend Melly!" Riki burst out happily as he ran over to her. "Melly look amazing before! Oh, Riki so proud!"

"Really?" Melia said with a smile. "It all happened so fast."

"I doubt many people could face dangerous monsters and assassins that were sent out to kill you and still take up the mantle of royal family duty," I said.

Melia gave me a confused look. "How did you know about that?"

"These guys told me," I replied. "They told me everything about their journey up to this point. Colony 9, Colony 6, Xord, Metal Face, the Telethia, and the assassin that tried to take your life. I'll be honest Mel; you've got some serious guts."

She still gave me a strange look. "I beg your pardon, but what do you mean by that?"

"It's my way of a compliment. Mel, you're not just any princess. You're a warrior princess, and you have earned my unwavering respect." I knelt down on one knee. "Princess Melia Antiqua. With your permission I would be honored if I, along with Shulk and the others, could be your friends."

Melia just burst out laughing.

"What?" I asked, confused. "Was it something I said?"

"Yes!" she exclaimed between laughs. "Everything that you say is just the strangest thing I've ever heard in my life!"

"Umm…is that…wh-what's supposed to mean, is that good, bad, what, which is it?"

She really couldn't keep back her laughter after that. "Of course it's good!" She said, still laughing. "You're a funny one."

"Um…"

"That was my way of a compliment," she said, finally calming down. She then took a deep breath and then exhaled. "Andrew, was it?"

"Uh, yup."

"Thank you."

"What for?"

"For the laugh," she said still smiling. "I really needed that. And yes. I would be honored if you would all be my friends."

I smiled back, and got up on my feet. "Thank, Melia."

"What a stunning garden!" Sharla said, as though nothing happened. She was running her eyes all over the place. "The arrangements…the fountain…when the colony up and running can I steal some ideas?"

Colony 6. Sharla's home, located around the left knee of the Bionis. It was attacked by the Mechon around the same time Colony 9 was hit. Except they didn't have Shulk and the Monodo to help them out at the time, and the Mechon assault there was just as bad as the one at Colony 9. Sharla, her younger brother Juju, her fiancé Gadolt, and their commanding officer Otharon fought back as best at they could, but in the end Colony 6 was devastated. The worst part was that Mechon army had their own leader, just like the attack at Shulk, Reyn, and Dunban's hometown. A bronze armored faced Mechon, named Xord. Looked like a metal fat giant with an insatiable appetite for Homs. Shulk and Reyn teamed up with Sharla, Otharon and Juju to take down Xord by sinking him into an Ether river, a giant supply of Ether that was lying right underneath Colony 6. They were victorious of course. Otherwise I wouldn't be talking to them right now. Juju was currently working on a restoration project to get Colony 6 back on its feet. I only hoped things were going okay for him. Sounded like a pretty determined guy. And as for Gadolt…he was nowhere to be found. But Sharla wasn't giving up any hope.

"My late mother loved this place," Melia replied to Sharla.

"Late mother?" Reyn said looking confused. "But I thought you mum was…"

"Uhhhh, yeah," I cut in. "About that…"

"Her Highness the First Consort is not my birth mother," Melia said with a sad look on her face.

"What?" Shulk said.

"Yeah," I cut in again. "Apparently members of the imperial family must take two wives. One Homs, one High Entia. The First Consort, Yumea Antiqua is Melia's stepmother. The Second Consort would be her Homs birthmother. Meaning of course that Melia here is half Homs, half High Entia."

Melia gave me an impressed look. "You're well informed."

Reyn pointed at me. "This guy spent almost in the entire day locked in the library, reading up all about our world."

"I've probably learned more about the history of this world than you did in your basic Homs history class," I said to Reyn with a smirk.

Sharla snickered. Reyn just groaned. "Rub it in, why don't you?" he said.

"Well he is correct," Melia said.

"And if I'm guessing right, it's because of your Homs blood that Yumea wanted you dead."

She was silent for a bit before she answered. "Yes…"

"I'm sorry to hear that," I said.

"It's alright," she replied. "I always had a feeling that she despised me…"

"Melia…" Sharla said with sadness in her voice.

I walked over to her and placed my hand on her shoulder. "Hey," I said. "If your doubting yourself as the heir, don't, because that's only gonna make you feel worse. Look, your father chose you to be his successor for a reason. I have no idea what that reason is, but I seriously doubt is _just_ because you're a half blood. You're a brave person, Mel. From what Shulk has told me, I know you are. But you have to believe that you are brave. Only then will you be able to do what you need to do. Just trust yourself."

She smiled at me again. "Funny and yet full of such wise words. You are a mystery."

"Eh, comes from thinking too much when I'm having trouble sleeping. Which happens quite often, I might at."

"Melly live here?" Riki asked, changing the subject.

"Yes, Riki," Melia said with a smile. "Since I was young. I cannot walk outside as you see me now, so this garden gives me much relief."

"What's wrong with how you look?" Reyn asked. "Who cares if you're half Homs? You'll always be you."

"Why do you think she wears a mask in public?" I deadpanned. "Remember the Tomb?"

"Indeed," Dunban agreed. "I doubt Yumea would be the last of the High Entia who would disagree with a half-blood being the successor to the throne. Their way of thinking differs from ours. Different ways, different morals."

Shulk nodded in agreement.

"Shulk, Andrew," Melia said. "In less than an hour there will be a banquet in the palace. I would like you all to come."

Riki bounced up and down excitedly. "Riki so hungry he could even eat smelly Orluga!"

"Ew, gross!" I said. An Orluga was a monster on Bionis that looked like a hunch back troll, said to be very strong and very foul smelling.

"This from a person who literally has no stomach?" Melia said.

"Yeah, I know, but it's still gross."

"Finally some decent grub!" Reyn exclaimed. "I haven't eaten anything since breakfast! What's on the menu? Any High Entia specials?"

"Do not embarrass me at this dinner!" Sharla scolded.

"Expectations lead to disappointment," Dunban said with a smile. "We are talking about Reyn here."

"What?!" Reyn shot back. "That's the last time I sit next to you then!"

Shulk just laughed.

"I have much to prepare," Melia said as she started to leave. "I will have someone call for you later."

"We can't wait," Shulk said.

"See ya latter, Mel," I said as she walked away.

But just then Shulk gasped as his eyes suddenly flashed a bright blue. "It can't be!" he shouted.

"Shulk?!" Reyn said, a bit startled.

"It's the Emperor! And Andrew too!"

"Wait, what?" I asked, not quite sure what just happened.

"Father?!" Melia asked worriedly. She quickly ran back to us.

"Another vision?" Reyn asked.

" _Uh oh,"_ I thought.

"Shulk! What did you see?!" Melia demanded.

"And what did I have to do with it?" I asked.

"On that tower…" Shulk began. "On Prison Island…"

Suddenly a loud siren started to blare all over the city, startling everyone.

"That can't be good," I said.

I then noticed that three imperial guards were running towards us in quite a hurry.

"What does the siren mean?" Dunban asked as soon as the guards reached us.

"M-Mechon…" one of them replied with fear in his voice. "They're coming!"

"Oh no…" I muttered, a little bit scared myself. This would be the third place on the Bionis to be hit by the Mechon this year. And I had a pretty good feeling I was going to get caught up in the middle of it.

…

Metal Face zipped across Eryth Sea with unmanned High Entia scouting drones hot on his tail. He performed a somersault and headed straight towards the water, stopping only when he reached the waters surface, transforming to battle mode. The drones were still headed for him, but not for much longer. Metal Face fired his thrusters, flew at rocket speed towards the drones, and sliced them up with his razor sharp claws along with anything else that got in his way.

"Too slow, you'll never stop me now!" he cackled as he screamed towards Prison Island.

…

The Palace was blaring with sirens too. Three imperial guards were rushing towards Emperor Sorean and Kalian.

"Report!" Kalian ordered.

"Yes, Sire," the guard answered calmly, but the sound of fear was still evident in his voice. "We received a report from our south station. Mechon are approaching."

"Impossible!" Kalian exclaimed.

Sorean sighed, knowing that now must be the time when Alvis's vision would come to pass. "Kalian," he said to his elder son. "Your sister's time has come."

"Your Majesty?" Kalian asked, a little confused by what he meant.

"There is only one course of action left," the Emperor replied as he walked over to the Imperial Staff that had been kept in the royal family for generations, grasping it in his hands. "We will not waver from our destinies."

Kalian suddenly realized what his father was doing. "Father!" he tried to protest.

"Kalian! Take charge of the capital's defenses," Sorean ordered, his decision final. "I will go to Prison Island!"

…

That damn siren was giving me a headache, but I tried to ignore it.

"Tell me!" Melia demanded of Shulk. "What happens to my father?"

"Yeah, I'd also like to know why I'm in there too," I added.

"He…you…" Shulk started. "It follows my last vision. We're on Prison Island. Metal Face and your father are…"

"Prison Island?" Melia interrupted. "Why would Father go there?" She thought for a moment, and then opened her eyes in fear. "No!" she shouted. "I must go to the Palace! I must stop him. I will go to the Audience Chamber!" She then dashed out of the garden and back to the palace.

"Wait, Melia!" Shulk yelled after her. "We're coming too!"

"Hey, wait!" I yelled after them. "What about me? What happens to me in the vision?"

Shulk turned around to face me. "You…you're fighting Metal Face along side us. You try to push Melia out of the way of Metal Face's claws and try to act as a body shield for Sorean but then…" He went silent after that.

"But then what…?" I asked.

"I…I think you get impaled…"

I froze at those last two words. Did that mean I died in the vision? What about the others? And Sorean? Melia? What happened to all of them?

"Shulk, get a move on!" Reyn yelled back. "We're gonna miss Melia if we don't catch up to her!"

"Right!" Shulk said as he took off.

"I'm coming with you!" I said as I ran with them.

"No way, Andrew," Shulk argued. "This is way too-"

"You're not gonna talk me out of this, Shulk, so kindly zip it. I'm coming with you and that's final." I then ran ahead of them to the teleporter that lead back to the Palace.

…

"Brother!" Melia shouted as she ran to Kalian. "Where is Father?"

Kalian looked at her younger sister with dread in his eyes. "Melia…" he said.

Melia then turned to look at an empty stand. It looked like something was missing.

"The Imperial Staff, it's…so Father has gone?!"

Kalian hung his head. It didn't take me long to figure out what was going on. Emperor Sorean Antiqua had gone to Prison Island.

"Kalian!" Melia shouted.

"The Emperor has proceeded to the island, alone," he replied with a somber tone. "For the sake of the empire."

"Why did you let him go alone?!" Melia yelled at her brother, full of fear and worry. "Father…!"

"His Majesty is fully aware," a voice spoke from nowhere, "of what will happen to him, and what he must do before then."

We all turned to face the source of the voice. It was Alvis. When did he get here?

"You saw something?" Shulk asked him.

"I did," Alvis replied. "During our ancient divination ritual."

Wait, Alvis had visions too?

Oh, wait a minute, wait a minute, Seers. I forgot about them. I guess Alvis was a Seer.

Seers were people who could have visions every now and then after they had touched the Monodo just once. The Divination Ritual took place once a month. The Seers would gather and share visions of the future in their minds. Apparently Alvis had a vision similar to Shulk's, and had shared it with the Emperor.

"If he knows, then why?" Shulk asked.

"Because," Alvis answered, "he is the ruler of the imperial family and all the High Entia. We must respect his decision above all else."

"But that doesn't mean…" Shulk protested.

"Trust him, Shulk," Kalian said grimly. "His fate was decided long ago."

"No!" Melia shouted.

There was a moment of depressing silence. Then I sighed.

"You know what? To hell with this imperial crap, I'm going," I said and started to head out of the palace.

"Andrew?!" Melia said, surprised.

"B-but you can't!" Kalian exclaimed.

"I'm not gonna let any rules or regulations tell me when I should or shouldn't help someone! Melia, this is you father we're talking about here! Yours too, Kalian! And he's going to die! Ever since I came to this world, the Emperor has been extremely kind to me! ME! A stranger from another world who just crashed into someplace that's far, far away from his home, and the Emperor of this awesome city and these awesome people just gave me a place to stay here, right out of the goodness of his heart! He even gave me a hundred thousand gold to spend! I've only been here one day, and I love this world! I could even call it a second home! I could never do enough to thank him for that. But now he's in danger! The man who went out of his way to help me is in danger! And I say, it's time I helped him back. Not just for me but also for Kalian and for Melia too! So with all due respect, Kalian…your rules can kiss my ass, pardon my language. I'm from another world, they don't apply to me. Same with any weird Homs or a Napon that just happen to be here."

The room was silent for a moment.

And then that silence was interrupted by a burst of laughter from Melia.

"Really?" I asked. "I was giving an inspirational speech and the response that I get is more laughter from you?"

I then noticed that Kalian was trying to stifle back a chuckle.

"Oh my God, not you too!"

Then Reyn.

"Oh, of course you would laugh."

And then Dunban.

"What?! Dunban, I thought you were the calm and serious guy?"

Then everyone just broke down laughing.

"Okay, seriously why is everyone laughing? Need I remind you we've got an invasion on our hands?"

"No, I know, I know," Melia said. "But…no one has ever spoken to my brother like that before! And it was just…I don't know how to describe it!"

"Uh oh…I'm not in trouble am I?"

"Hardly," Kalian said as he recovered from his laughing fit. "I don't know what it is about you, Andrew, but somehow, whenever you speak in that calm, easygoing, yet determined voice of yours…it makes me feel like everything is going to be alright. You really are indeed a strange person."

"No, he's not just that," Melia said. "Andrew, you are a strange, curious, and wonderful person."

I couldn't help but feel my face going red when she said that. "U-umm….thanks…I guess…" Never had anyone call me that before. "W-wait, does this mean we can go?"

"It's clear that I can't do anything to persuade you not to," Kalian said. "As you said, you are not affected by our laws. So do what you must."

I smiled. "Kalian, you've gotta be the coolest prince I've ever met. Thanks a lot, man! Oh and um…sorry for…y'know…the disrespect."

"No apologies needed. You spoke your heart. I cannot fault you for that."

"I appreciate that. Well, Mel? You all set?"

"Yes!" She exclaimed. "We go to Prison Island!"

AN: Nothing else left to say but STAY TUNED.


	5. Chapter 3-Showdown On Prison Island

AN: …NEEEEEEEEXT CHAPTER! That's all I have to say. Sorry, not really one for announcements.

Chapter Three-Showdown on Prison Island

 _Man's desire for revenge knows no bounds._

 _How far will you go to avenge the loss of a loved one?_

The airborne battle around Prison Island continued to rage on over the Eryth Sea. The sky boomed with whooshes, crashes and explosions, and lit up with lasers. Metal Face, Nemesis, and the Xord Mechons were slashing and smashing away at the unmanned drones, but they just kept coming! Yes, they were pathetically weak, but they were many.

"This fly infestation is beginning to bug me!" Metal Face said with irritation in his voice.

He and Nemesis sliced down the last of the drones into ribbons.

"Unmanned craft built by ancient High Entia," Nemesis said in her gentle, well-mannered mechanical voice. "It is too much to hope this is the last of them?"

It indeed was the last of their battles with the drones, but it wasn't the last of their troubles. Just then a whole bunch of dark creatures came flying from Prison Island towards the faced Mechon. They were shaped like some sort of manta ray, but it had four wings and could fly. And they were twice the size of the Mechon.

"Ginormous… _things_ at twelve o'clock!" Metal Face exclaimed, shocked at their appearance and size.

"Ancient creatures that were sealed within Prison Island," Nemesis observed. "They have us in their sights."

"You think they might be our target's pets?" Metal Face wondered.

"Perhaps," the female Mechon replied.

"Well then," Metal Face said with an menacing grin. "Let's see how the like this!"

And with that Metal Face broke off and flew ahead of one of the creatures with it in pursuit. Metal Face then readied to fire a shot from his scorpion tail cannon.

"RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" he roared furiously. "DIIIIIIIEEEEEEE!" He fired a massive laser, impaling the dark creature, along with several others. The battle around Prison Island had intensified tenfold. And there was no end in sight. At least, not anytime soon.

…

"Prison Island is just up ahead," Melia said as we exited the teleporter from Alcamoth. In the distance I could see the entire perimeter of the Island alit with laser blasts and explosions.

"Oh man," I said. "That's not looking pretty."

"How do get up there?" Shulk asked.

"There's a transporter that we must take," Melia said. "Normally we'd have to unlock two sister seals in order to access it, but considering the circumstances, Father might have used the Imperial override code to quickly release the seals."

"So, does that mean the transporter should be ready for us?" Sharla asked.

"Yes," Melia answered.

"Alrighty then, what're we standing around for?" I said energetically. "We've got an Emperor to save!" Without thinking I vaulted over the railing that we were looking over.

Kinda forgot that we were floating over a large body of water.

"Andrew, wait!" I heard Shulk yell.

"AH, CRAP!" I shouted as I realized that I was heading for the see. Completely on instinct, I snapped my fingers, and opened up the same portal that I did back in the medical bay, which I will now affectionately call it, the Time Gate. But this one didn't lead back to the Timeless Void. It lead back to the balcony that I jumped from. Kinda like a Portal gun. So I fell through the time gate and landed flat on my chest on the hard metal floor. "Oohoof, ow!" I exclaimed as the Time Gate above me closed. "Yeah, kinda forgot about that."

As soon as I got back up on my feet Reyn asked, "How did you do that?"

"I have no idea. Pure instinct I guess. Gonna need some time to practice when this is over."

"There's a transporter to Central Seal Island just behind us," Melia said. "We can use that."

"That sounds like something that should've been mentioned _before_ I almost ended up taking a late night dip," I deadpanned.

"But that would've meant us witness such a hilarious blunder," Melia countered.

"Ladies and gentlemen, successor to the High Entia!" I said sarcastically. "No offense."

"None taken," she said back with a smile.

…

We took the transporter (apparently that's what they're called) to Central Seal Island. It was a floating Island that was right in front of Prison Island. The sounds of the airborne battle sounded a lot louder now. On the island there were two great silver pillars that seemed to be half of one pillar. I'm guess those were the two sister seals that Melia was talking about. There were two elevated pathways that formed a semi-circle around the two seals, meeting in the center behind them. There was what appeared to be some type of circular switch that was located where the two path's merged.

"It seems the central seal has gone back into lock down," Melia observed. "All we need to do it to turn that switch up there and the transporter to Prison Island will be activated."

"Alrighty," I said, and once again I did something without even thinking. I jumped all the way from the ground and right up to the switch. I looked back at where I had jumped from. Everyone else was giving me the same dumbfounded look that I was all too familiar with. "Goddamn, I really need to figure out how I'm doing this crap," I muttered to myself as I pressed my hand on the switch. The switch then lit up in a brilliant shine of teal and shot a light into the night sky. The circle that was outlining the switch separated in to two halves. Then I heard a loud CLANK sound, as though something was unlocking. I looked at the ground below to see a giant circular platform in the ground open up reveal the transporter to Prison Island. The transporter then activated in a brilliant shimmer of aqua blue.

"Okay, we're good to go!" I shouted back to the others.

"Oi!" Reyn yelled. "Look up there!"

I turned my eyes towards the sky to see what Reyn was looking at. Sure enough, not only could I see what I assumed to be Mechon because of their mechanical look, but also some weird, dark looking creatures. They reminded me of The Cursed.

"Mechon!" Shulk observed. "And something we've never seen before!"

"Big fish coming!" Riki suddenly shouted.

I turned to look at him with a puzzled face. "Uh, what?" Then I heard a loud screech coming from behind me. I turned to see some kind of dark giant sting ray with four wings heading straight for me! "JESUS!" I yelled as I jumped backwards to avoid its kamikaze attack. I landed back with the others. "What the hell is that thing?!" The creature then reared up and plunged its way towards us. Acting quickly, we dodged rolled out of the way of its dive, but just barely. It was pretty fast considering its size.

"Whatever it is, it's not friendly." Sharla said, reading her rifle.

"Looks like we don't have a choice," Shulk said, grabbing the Monodo. "Everyone, get ready!" Instantly the center circle on the sword started to glow and the sheath opened up to reveal a glowing blue blade of light.

" _Okay, that's pretty cool,"_ I thought. But I didn't have time to admire it, because the creature fired a blast of dark mist right at me. It knocked me off my feet and I landed several feet behind the others, sprawled on the ground.

"Andrew!" I heard Melia yell.

Sharla grunted in irritation as she began to unload her rifle into the creature. It didn't really seem to be doing much though, but she did gain its attention. The creature reared up for another attack.

"Shulk!" Reyn signaled.

"Got it!" Shulk replied. The center of the Monodo started to glow blue and some type of symbol or appeared in the center circle. I wasn't sure how, but I could understand what it stood for. It read, "Swift."

Shulk then jumped up into the air. "MONODO SPEED!" He yelled as ne slammed the blunt edge of his blade into the ground sending out a brilliant blue shock wave. Everyone's bodies, mine included, was then surrounded in a blue aura. Reyn then dashed faster than my eye could follow right in between Sharla and the creature, with his Scrap Driver (apparently that's what his weapon's called) in defense position. The creature slammed into Reyn's shield, moving him back a few feet but not knocking him over.

Shulk then took his chance and dashed towards the creature at the same blinding speed as Reyn. "STREAM EDGE!" Shulk yelled as he unleashes a wide horizontal slash across the creature's left wing. The creature's flight stumbled a bit.

Reyn then jumped into action, bringing up the blade of his weapon. "WILD DOWN!" He stabbed the creature in its underside, making it screech loudly in pain as it collapsed onto the ground.

"THUNDER BULLET!" Sharla yelled as she unloaded two electric rounds into the thing's head.

"GALE SLASH!" Dunban cried out as he made a dashing slash at the paralyzed monster.

"SUMMON FIRE!" Melia shouted out, making a big ball of fire appear in the air. "DISCHARGE!" The thrust her staff forward and the ball of fire flew towards the unfortunate monster and exploded in a tower of flame. The air around us echoed with the painful screams of the monster.

"Holy shit," I muttered, completely impressed. These guys were good. REALLY good.

I then saw Melia run over towards me, with worry in her eyes. "Andrew! Are you well?!"

"Ugh…yeah, I'm good," I grunted as I slowly got up. I noticed that my body had a few scrapes, but they were instantly beginning to heal up. "Heh, good thing my body heals up quickly. If I had my old one right now, I might have had a few broken bones,"

"You jest so lightly after you have been wounded?" she scolded me.

"I'm not wounded anymore am I?" I showed her where the last of my bruises were healing.

"Oh my…" Melia said, her eyes wide with amazement.

"And besides, I figure that making jokes to myself kinda keeps me calm and collected. Yeah, I may act like the funny guy on the surface right now, but in my mind," I tapped my head, "I'm freaking out big time. After all, this is only the second time I've been in a life or death fight."

"You've been in battle before?" Melia asked me surprised.

"Yeah, but only once, and that was when I had my normal body. And besides, I wouldn't really consider that a fight anyways."

"Why not?"

"It was a fluke. I got lucky. It was neither a victory nor a loss. It was the fight that caused me to get tossed into the Timeless Void." I laughed a little. "Heh, a fate worse than death. Yeah, there were a lot of times where I just wanted to die while I was in there, but I knew I couldn't."

"But you managed to get out," Melia said back.

"Yeah, and nearly died in the process," I replied. "Ironically, it was that moment when this...thing that I have nearly killed that I didn't want to die. And right now, I'm glad I didn't. Because if I had, I never would've come here and met you guys. I never would have discovered that the theory that other worlds and dimensions exist." Melia smiled as I spoke this. "And besides," I continued with a serious look on my fae, "there's a lot of unanswered questions that are on my mind."

"What do you mean?"

"There's still a lot of unanswered questions that I have circling around in my head. And I'm pretty sure most of the answers lie back home. And besides, I still want to save my world from being destroyed. So somehow, someway, I've got to find a way back home."

Melia's faced had a saddened expression when as I said that. "Well...can't you just go back through the Timeless Void?"

"Can't. I got banished from my world. I can't go back there right now. And I need a LOOOOOOOONG break from the Timeless Void. That place gave me the worst headaches of my life."

"Why were you banished?"

I thought about answering that. I really didn't want to delve into that story right now, not with an enemy assault going on. Fortunately I didn't have to because at that moment, I looked at the giant pillar of fire that was still burning, and saw the silhouette of the same monster that the others were fighting start to rise.

Whew, thank God for that distraction.

...

Wait what was I thinking, that wasn't good at all!

"Guys look out!" I shouted. "That thing's still alive!"

The others turned back to the creature, but they were too late to act. The pillar exploded outwards, followed by a giant burst of a dark cloud of mist. It knocked the everyone off of their feet and blew them back several feet, landing right on their backs.

 _"Defend yourself!"_

There it was again. That same voice that echoed in my head after I woke up from grabbing that purple orb thing. What was it? Why was it in my head?

Once again, questions for latter. As soon as it spoke, my mind cleared and I held my right had out forward. As the fire and dark mist headed towards Melia and I, some of bounced off my hand and just whizzed past us, shielding us from harm.

"Whoa," I said in amazement. The look in Melia's eyes suggested she was thinking the exact same thoughts as me.

"Agh!" Reyn exclaimed. "That smarts!"

"M-my strength..." Shulk struggled to stand on his legs, using the Monodo as support.

"That...mist..." Dunban said. "It must have the ability to...drain the strength of whomever it comes into contact with."

"Riki...so...tired..."

"Hang on," Sharla said, as she reloaded her rifle. "I think I have a round that can restore adrenaline."

I don't think the creature was gonna give them a chance to recover, because it was headed straight towards them.

No way I was gonna let that happen.

"Not a chance in hell!" I yelled as I thrust out my left hand. Immediately the lower half of my left arm became engulfed in a dark purple flame, and similar colored chains shot out from my wrist and headed straight for the monster. They wrapped around its body, suspending its flight. The other ends of the chains wrapped around my left hand, allowing me to grasp them with ease. The monster started to jerk around frantically, struggling to break itself free from the chains. It's movements started to yank my hand around. "Whoa!" I yelled as I was pulled a few feet away from Melia. My instincts kicking in, I got back on my feet and dug my heels into the ground as hard as I could. Immediately the lower halves of my legs were engulfed in the same colored flames as my left arm, and they began to make scraping sounds as I was slowly being pulled towards that thing. I grabbed the string of chains with my right hand, igniting my right arm in the same flames. I pulled on the chains to fight back against the monsters struggle. And much to my surprise it lurched towards me a little.

The others looked at me with dumbfounded eyes. I was pretty shocked myself but now really wasn't the time to think about what was going on. "Sharla! You said you have something that can get the others back in action, right?"

"Yes!" Sharla replied back. "But I need time to get my rifle ready! It's over heated, I need to let it cool off!"

"How much time do you need?"

"Umm…about two to three minutes!"

"Twenty three minutes?!"

"No, two TO three minutes."

"Oh, okay, that I can handle."

"Wait, what?!" Shulk yelled. "What are you doing?"

"Isn't it obvious? Mm!" I yanked on the dark chains again and brought the monster a little closer to me. "I'm buying you time!"

"But you don't know how to fight!" Reyn called out.

"Well someone's gotta save your asses from being pulverized into dust and it might as well be me."

"Andrew wait!" Melia called out. "Do you even have a plan?"

"Nope!" I focused all of my energy into my left hand and pulled as hard as I could. "Rgh!" The monster came tumbling in mid air straight at me. I raised my right hand, focusing as much power as I could into it. A massive purple glowing demonic looking spectral of my right hand appeared in front of my real hand. I could feel an immense power building up inside my fist. I thrust my right hand forward as the monster hurled towards me. The spectral fist slammed right into the creature's back and sent it flying a few feet away, shattering the chains in the process. "But I figure winging it is a good place to start!"

…

Melia stared in awe at what the boy had just accomplished. Andrew had just sent the unknown monster crashing into the ground like it was nothing! Was this really only the second he had been in a battle? And the power he had…it was very close to how Shulk's vision described his fighting style. What else could he do? The monster started to flap it's wings and took to the air again. It roared furiously at Andrew.

"Oh, what?" Andrew taunted. "You mad? Well then, come at me bro!" He motioned with his hands for the monster to attack him. And it did. It fired a beam of dark mist straight at him, but Andrew was prepared for this. He dodge rolled out of the way, crouching down on one knee, with his right hand stretched outward. A dark ball of energy began to materialize in his hand and increased in size in a matter of seconds. Andrew then threw it at the monster, but it dodged it with incredibly fast reflexes. Andrew was faster however. He kept bombarding the monster with shots from his hands, and the monster kept dodging left and right to avoid them, but it was not able to keep up with the boy's speed. Eventually, it got careless and was hit with five shots right in its face. The impacts created brilliant bright purple explosions.

"Bulls eye!" Andrew exclaimed with a fist pump. But before he could celebrate, the monster burst out of the smoke and performed a dive bomb straight at the boy. Thinking quickly, Melia got to her feet.

"MIND BLAST!" She yelled, as she fired bright golden beam of light from her left hand. It hit the monster dead on, breaking its dive bomb path. Andrew, giving the thumbs up to Melia, as if to say "thanks," took this chance and leapt several feet into the air. At the apex of his jump, Andrew performed a forward flip and extended his right foot forward. His foot blazed even more fiercely as he carried the momentum of his flip downwards. He was preforming a vicious dive kick right at the monster's under side, and he struck it with a loud BANG!

The creature was driven downwards into the ground, with Andrew's foot still embedded into it. They landed with CRASH! Andrew leapt backwards into the air and performed a back flip, landing with both feet and his right hand touching the ground. Melia was now in total awe. The being from an entirely different world didn't seem to think much of himself as a fighter, and yet he had just bashed around an unknown monster in about a minute. And with his physical strength! His form and fighting style wasn't anything like she had ever seen before.

However, what drew Melia's ultimate attention were his bright emerald eyes. They were completely different from the carefree and positive glow that they usually had. Now they were burning with focus and determination. She could also see some faint traces of rage and sorrow in them too. _"He must be thinking about his first fight,"_ Melia thought. _"And that must be making him think about his world and what's happening to his home. Being stuck in that rift with all of those thoughts inside him must have been…I can't even comprehend what kind of torture that must have been for his mind. That poor, poor boy."_ Melia couldn't help but feel a rising amount of pity and sadness for him. _"Andrew, I wish there was something I could do to help…"_

"All done!" Sharla yelled. "CURE ROUND!" She fired her gun into the air, igniting the ether around her in a bright sparkle of blue. Immediately, the rest of the gang got back up on their feet.

…

"Wow, that was quick," I said, amazed. Fastest medical treatment I ever saw.

"Andy the not Hom-Hom amazing!" Riki yelled, full of energy. "Andy hit big flying fish right in backside!"

"I have to agree, that was rather stunning," Dunban added, looking at the monster that lied on the ground.

"So…did you kill it?" Reyn asked.

"Um…" As if on cue, the monster rolled over, pushed itself back into the air and furiously blasted more dark mist at me. I saw it coming as if it were in slow motion and quickly blocked it with my hand. "That would be a no."

"Chain attack chance time!" Riki said bouncing up and down.

"A what now?"

"He's suggesting we attack the monster all at once," Sharla said.

"Oh. Sweet, works for me. LET'S DO THIS!" I shot out my right hand. "BIND CHAIN!" Dark purple chains shot out from my wrist and wrapped around the monster again. It was prepared for this attack and tried to dodge, but it wasn't fast enough to escape their speed and range. "Dunban! Give 'im hell!"

"Acknowledged! SOARING TEMPEST!" Dunband jumped and spun around in the air like a tornado, delivering several cuts to the monster's underside. "Riki! Don't mess up!"

"Leave it to Heropon! Rolley-Poley, keep on rolling!" Riki fired an ether shot from his cub at the monster, causing it to spin around in mid air and land on its belly. "Reyn!"

"Yo! SHEILD BASH!" Reyn bashed the shield of his Scrap Driver into the monster's face. Well, what counted as a face anyways. "Sharla! Have at 'im!"

"Right! HEADSHOT!" Sharla pointed her rifle directly at the monster's head and unloaded a single shot. The bullet embedded into the creature's head, but did not kill it. It was however on the verge of death. "Melia!"

"As you wish! BURST END!" Melia slammed her staff into the ground and the top of it exploded with a bright light, hitting the monster extremely hard with an ether attack. "Shulk!"

"Got it! SLIT EDGE!" Shulk turned the Monodo sideways and stabbed the monster in its side. "Andrew! Finish it off!"

"Alrighty! RRRGH!" I pulled on my chains as hard as I could and sent the dazed monster in to the air. Releasing the chains, I leapt into the air and assaulted the monster with a flurry of spinning kicks. "DARK TEMPEST!" I finished it off with a forward flip and a downward axe kick. As I performed the kick, a spectral and demonic version of my foot appeared and drove the monster all the way down into the ground. We landed with a loud CRASH, creating a crater in the ground. Once again, I back flipped off of the monster and landed with the others! "Whoo! Okay, yeah, that was…whoa…that was a rush!" I said amazed at both what my new friends and I had accomplished.

"You think it's dead this time?" Shulk asked.

In response, I walked over to the monster and knocked on its hard skin. It didn't move. "Yup, it's down!" I said.

"So," Reyn spoke up. "Can anyone explain what this is?"

"I believe it's one of the oldest creatures on Bionis," Melia deduced. "I have only seen them as fossils discovered around the capital."

"Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait," I interrupted. "You said fossils?"

"Yes, why?"

I snapped my fingers. "Of course! I didn't realize it sooner because I was distracted during the adrenaline rush of the fight!"

"What, you know what they are?" Melia asked.

"Well, no, not really. Just what was in the archeological records. Like Melia said, they're the oldest creatures on Bionis; prehistoric would probably be a more accurate description. No one really knows what exactly they are or their origins, or hell, even what their called. I only realized what it was after getting a closer look at its body structure. But," I continued as I looked up at Prison Island. "We can probably take a good guess at where they come from now."

"Indeed," Melia agreed. "To find that they were trapped on Prison Island…"

"Was it protecting the island?" Sharla asked.

"Doubtful," Dunban replied. "That would imply it's sentient. I believe, it was responding to something more…primitive."

"Primitive?" Sharla asked. "What do you mean?"

"Basically," I said. "It didn't care who or what we are. It was acting on the instinct to defend against anyone or anything. In short, it's the type that thinks everything is its enemy. But we'll probably never know now. Regardless, every second we waste here, Sorean gets closer to…well…ahem…" I didn't want to make Melia more scared of what would possibly happen to her father.

"Andrew's right," Sharla said. "We're losing time here. We still haven't reached the island."

"Riki go to island!" Riki said with a determined voice.

"Then what're we waiting for?" I asked. "GERONIMOOOOOOOO!" I ran towards the teleporter. I hadn't noticed that it had started to rain. Or the fact I had gone a day without realizing that I wasn't wearing any footwear.

…

Prison Island roared with the sounds of gunfire and jets. Metal Face kept circling around Prison Island, searching for his target and eliminating his enemies in the process. He wasn't having much luck. But he didn't mind much, as long as there were enemies for him to slaughter. Meanwhile, Sorean Antiqua had made it to the top of the island, watching the battle unfold.

"Our forces can only take so much," he said, grimly. "The capital's defenses are sure to fall." He turned to the stone the round notch in the ground behind him. "Forefathers, grant me you wisdom," he said as he slammed his staff into the notch. "Iluna Mel Rukan Tak'sis! Duku Aruke Mese Dakhini Ehato!"

Lights that took the form of glyphs began to shine brightly on the ground. The wall in front of the High Entia Emperor. And from the ground a rotating circle rose up, with a giant purple-skinned, long white-hared giant in shackles rose from the ground. Sorean couldn't believe his eyes. "It…it can't be! A Giant! So…this is what was sealed away."

The Giant slowly looked at the old man. "How long has it been, Emperor?" He asked.

"This is our first encounter," The Emperor replied.

"It is not you that I speak to, but your blood. The blood that shackled me."

"I see," Sorean said. "Then I assume I do not need to tell you the reason I am here."

"There is no need," the Giant agreed. "I already know why you have come."

Sorean was still surprised at what he was looking at.

"Use it," the Giant said, regaining his attention. "That is the reason I am here, after all."

Sorean nodded and slammed his staff into the ground again. The circle in which the Giant was shackled to lit up in a brilliant golden light. "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" The Giant yelled as bolts of lightning shot up from the ground and surrounded the island in a shield made of electricity. Bolts of lightning then shot out from the shield and hit several faced Mechon. Metal Face was barely able to dodge the surprise attack!

"Ah! Wh-…how did they…?!" Needless to say, he never saw this coming.

Kalian and Alvis were watching the spectacle from the edge of the capital. Lightning blazed across the sky, striking down Mechon left or right.

"That light, it's…" Kalian assumed this was his father's work. "Father…"

Alvis just smiled. He knew that Shulk would be arriving soon.

…

"WAAAAAAAIIIIT!" I yelled as we stepped out of the transporter.

"What?!" Melia said, startled at my sudden outburst.

"I forgot something!"

"What?" asked Shulk.

"I can't believe I went a whole day without realizing that I wasn't wearing anything on my feet. And I just kicked a tough skinned monster with my bare feet!" I paused at what I said. "So why aren't my feet-AGH! Okay, yup, there it is, ow, ow, ow, pain, ow, ow, aaaahh, God that hurts." I turned to everyone. "Why didn't anyone tell me I was barefoot?"

"You wear strange clothes from your world," Sharla said. "We thought it was just normal for humans to walk around barefoot."

"The only humans that I know of that do that live in different parts of my world," I replied. "Mostly hobos. Anyways, there is no way I am trekking up this island in my bare feet, especially when it's raining. So…" I snapped my fingers and black socks and my blue and back Air Jordan shoes materialized on my feet in a blaze of dark purple flames. "Okay, that's much better. Alrighty! Let's-whoa." I saw more monsters like the one we fought earlier. But they were smaller in size. Most of them were out fighting the Mechon; the others were circling around the pathways of Prison Island like vultures around a dead body. I had also noticed that the island had become surrounded by some kind force field made out of electricity. I could only guess this was the handy work of Sorean. Smart defense option. At lease we don't have to worry about any faced Mechon barging in uninvited.

"Okay," I said. "Considering the fact that one of these was tough enough, and that we'll need as much strength as we possibly can to save Melia's dad, I suggest that we try not to draw the attention of the local natives as we climb this island."

"That's a good idea," Sharla said. "It's best not to waste our energy against something that's just going to slow us down."

"Alright, let's go," Shulk said as he started ahead of us. We all fell in pursuit. Melia followed beside me.

"So…your world," she said to me. "What's it like?"

"You mean before it got turned into a living hell?" I replied back. "Nothing like this world. I mean, yeah, my world has some awesome sights, various languages and cultures, and some tech that I bet Shulk would go nuts over if he got his hands on it. My iPod and head phones are not even the tip of the ice burg of what my race has created. Ohhhhh, man the things that we have done, and the things that…we will hopefully do, if I can ever save my world from being torn apart."

Melia smiled at me. "Your people sound like a very proud race."

"We are. Sometimes a little too proud."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Just like how the people of this world are divided amongst the Homs, Nopon, and High Entia, mine is kinda the same. There are Americans, which is what I am, Canadians, Africans, Mexicans, Chinese, Japanese, English, French, German, Russian; the list goes on and on. We have over a dozen religious beliefs and morals; we speak a thousand different languages. No one person in my world is the same as the other, and the variety is absolutely brilliant! I'm glad that everyone is different, that everyone is their own person. And yet, some people don't think that way. Some people take pride in their individuality. Too much pride in some cases. People have started wars just because they think differently from each other. The people who started those wars thought that they were supreme, strong, just, perfect, and everyone else was weak, wrong, flawed, and unworthy. The history of my world is soaked with bloodshed and madness. My race is capable of both great good, but sometimes even greater atrocities. There are times when I have been ashamed at my race for the things that it's done. But I also know that we are capable of so, so, so much more than meaningless wars. I know that we're better than that, I believe that one day, one day in very, very far flung future, all of the people in the world will come together; come to understand one another and work to achieve a world where we don't have to fight anymore. And it is for that same hope I hold onto that I want to save my world so we can achieve that future."

Melia just looked at me with eyes of full of amazement. Probably at what I said. "You're people sound similar to mine."

"What, whoa, no! No, no, no, no. My people are nothing like the Homs, Nopon, or hell, nowhere NEAR like the High Entia. I've read about the history of your people cover to cover, and not once did I find anything about any of you people fighting each other."

"Well," Melia replied, "that's not entirely true. We've definitely never waged war against the Homs or the Nopon. The High Entia have always been on good terms with the Nopon, but as for the Homs, we have seen them as a rather primitive species. We saw them as impulsive and arrogant often times; quick to pull the trigger on something that they didn't like or something that scared them. But my mother…my Homs birth mother…she told me that it was true that the Homs can be impulsive, but there are many that are kind hearted Homs, and that one day I would meet one."

"Your mother sounded like a very nice person."

"She was," Melia's eyes looked sad now. "My mother was the nicest, gentlest person that I knew. She loved me so much. The day she passed away was the saddest day of my life. Aside from Kalian, I don't think anyone else in my family loved me the way she did. My father is always busy with imperials duties, my step mother despises me so much that she tried to have me killed, and my sister…well, we never see eye to eye. My mother's death was the day that I felt all alone."

"Okay, okay, okay, I'm going to stop you right there," I interjected. "Now, I don't know anything about your sister, and as far as your mother goes, I haven't met her, so I only know what I have been told. I mean, okay, yeah, she did send an assassin on you, but personally, I prefer not to jump to conclusions until after I've heard both sides of the argument."

Melia raised an eyebrow. "Why would you say that?"

"I'm a kind of guy who believes in fairness. I prefer not to be judgemental towards anyone's intentions until I have learned the truth, and weather or not I understand and agree with said truth."

After having said that, Melia smiled at me with gentle eyes. "An unbiased gentleman," she said. "Andrew, the more I learn about you, the more and more curious you become to me."

"Um…is…is that a compliment?"

"Maybe," she gave me a cheeky grin.

"Ugh. A princess with a sense of humor. The High Entia have got some tough times a head of them."

"Oi!" Melia exclaimed as she hit me on the head with the bottom of her fist. "You dare question my position as heir to the throne?"

"Easy, easy, I was only joking!"

"Hmph!" She turned her face away from me with a huffy expression on her face.

I sighed. "Okay, I'm sorry. I promise that I will never question you as the heir to the High Entia, princess."

Melia turned back to me smiled. "That's better," she said as she lightly tapped my nose with her finger.

I could feel my face turning a deep shade of red. Melia giggled at my embarrassment. "Um…right, uh…well…thanks….for that…" I said as I scratched the back of my head. "Ahem, um…anyways as I was saying: I don't know anything about your sister, and like I said before, I only know what I have been told about your mother. But as for your father, yeah, he's a busy guy being the emperor or not, but I seriously doubt that means he doesn't care about you."

"How do you know that?"

"Because," I continued. "He asked a favor for Shulk and I. He asked not as the emperor but as your father for the two of us to be your friends."

Melia gave me a bit of a sad look. "So is that why you asked to be my friend back in the garden? Because he told you to?"

Oh boy. I could see where this was going. "Well, yeah that's partially true, but only a tiny bit," I said making a small space between my index finger and thumb. "But even if he hadn't, I still would've asked you of my own free will. When I was in the library, I read about the duties of the High Entia princess. It's not an easy life, with all the duties and responsibilities of the people. And attempted assassinations on top of that. It must be a lonely life for you."

She looked at me again. "It…can be, at times."

"I felt bad for you. And after the ceremony I could only imagine the amount of emotions that were swirling around in your head. And so I thought, if there was ever a time that someone like you need a friend or two, it would be now." I place my hand on her head. "And it's also why I want to help you. Not just because I want to be your friend, and not just because I want to repay your father for everything he's done for me, but because that you need to know how much he loves you. I want to show you that you don't have to be alone. Not anymore."

Melia's face turned a little red, and she smile shyly. "Thank you, Andrew," she said. "I'm glad I got to meet someone like you. Shulk and the others too."

I smiled back. "I'm glad I met you too. You guys are the first people I've met in a long time. I should be the one thanking you."

We started to ascend some stairs and came across a gigantic door with a golden luminescent glyph sealing it.

"Whoa!" Reyn exclaimed. "Big door! Whatever needed this door was massive!"

"Either that or it's just for style points," I remarked.

"Style points?" Shulk repeated.

"Yeah, y'know. For show, presentation. Even a prison like this has to give some kind of feeling of intimidation."

"Ah!" Riki exclaimed giving me a non-existing heart attack. "Dinobeast!"

"What?! Where?!" I shouted, igniting my arms and legs. "Dinobeast" was what Riki called a type of monster that's known as a Telethia. According to Shulk, a Telethia was a monster that could read a person's thoughts. In other words, in battle, it knew what you were going to do before you even did it. That was a monster I really hoped I never had to fight. Riki rushed over to a statue of a monster that looked like it had wings. I couldn't really get a good look at it because of how dark the sky was with the storm.

"It's just a statue," Reyn said. "Don't freak us out like that, Riki!"

"Yeah dude," I said defusing my flames. "You nearly gave me a…um…well, whatever could pass as a heart attack for me."

"Is this a person?" Sharla asked. "I can't make it out."

"This may very well be the appearance of my forefathers," Melia deduced. The legends tell that they were differed greatly to how we look now."

"Wait, the High Entia used to look like the Telethia?" I asked. "Huh. Evolution's pretty interesting in this world."

"Wait a moment," Reyn said. "Now that you mention it, it does kinda look like a Telethia. Wait, how do you know that? You've never seen a Telethia."

"Dinobeast! Dinobeast!" Riki kept bouncing up and down.

I pointed to Riki. "That's why."

"Melia," Shulk spoke up. "Did your ancestors build this island?"

"No," she said as she turned to face Shulk. "The stories tell of this place existing long before my people."

"Wait, wait," I interjected. "So, aside from all of the ancient monsters that are floating around the island, your people are the only sentient beings that have been around on Bionis the longest. So if you didn't build this island, then who…or rather, what did?"

"No one knows for sure," she replied. "But we think our forefathers are the ones who sealed it."

"I wonder what it is that they sealed away?" Sharla asked with curiosity.

"We'll probably know soon enough," I replied.

"Look!" Melia pointed to the bottom of the statue. "There! An engraving by the forefathers!" There was a tablet similar to the one in the Audience Chamber that Sorean showed Shulk and I. "I've seen this engraving around the capital. Many researchers have tried and failed to discover its meaning."

"'To our descendants,'" I read aloud. "'This Island contains a being of unimaginable power that must never be awakened. Should the being ever be released, it will spell doom and destruction for the entire world. Turn back now, and forget this place.'"

Everyone looked at me with surprised eyes. "You can read this?" Melia asked me.

"Apparently," I said. "Weird, since I couldn't read these markings before in the Audience Chamber. What's even stranger is that these markings are very identical to that one symbol I saw on the Monodo."

Shulk looked closer at the tablet. "Now that you mention it," he said. "You're right. Some of these symbols I have seen before on the Monodo. But, wait, does that mean you can read the Monodo's symbols too?"

"Yup," I reply. "That one move you used, Monodo Speed? The symbol for it read as 'Swift.' Any other moves you got that might some corresponding symbols on this?"

"Well, there's Enchant, Buster, Shield, and Purge."

I snapped my fingers. "Purge! Umm…purge, purge, purge…uhh…closest symbol I can find, is this one." I pointed to one of the symbols on the tablet. "It reads, 'Destroy.' Look familiar?"

"Yes that's the exact same symbol for that Art," Shulk said. "But, why are the symbols of Monodo on here?"

"Hell, if I know," I replied. "Maybe there's some kind of…I dunno, a connection or something?"

"Connection?" Dunban asked.

"Just a guess," I said. "Something tells me there's no way that this is a coincidence."

"The sealed door to Prison Island," Melia said interrupting our thoughts. "It is said that only a true successor to the throne can open it."

"Then the Emperor must be inside," Shulk said.

"Most likely," I added.

"Forefathers!" Melia said loudly in front of the door. "I, your descendant Melia Antiqua, stand before you! For the sake of our world, release the seal!"

A green light shined from the door and onto Melia. A right of green light, probably Ether, began to move up and down around her body. It looked like it was scanning her.

"Just like at the Tomb," she said.

"What's it doing?" Reyn asked, not sure of what was happening.

"Aren't we going to help?!" Sharla exclaimed.

"Easy guys," I said. "She's in no danger."

"How do you know?" Reyn asked.

"Biometric scan. Basically, the door is scanning her body to see if she really is who she says she is?"

"But why would it need to do that?" Shulk asked. "She just said she was a descendent of the High Entia."

"Some kind of…security measure?" Dunban asked.

I snapped my fingers at Dunban. "Bingo. Let's think about this for a second. What were to happen if someone else who isn't Melia Antiqua were to say the exact same thing?"

There was a moment of silence.

"They'd be in trouble?" Reyn asked.

"Big trouble," I corrected. "They'd be arrested for impersonating a member of the royal family, and for trying to break into a sealed place like this. You heard me read the cryptic warning. This isn't a place where someone can just come and go willy-nilly. Whatever is in this place, whatever is sealed…the High Entia must've made a good reason to seal this place off. If anyone could just open this place up…well…let your imaginations do the rest of the work."

There was a moment of silence after this. Then the golden glyph on the door shimmered and then disappeared. The stone door then started to open with a sound of grinding stone. We started towards the entrance, but I noticed Shulk hadn't move. In fact he had a look of doubt on his face.

"Shulk?" I asked. "You okay, man?"

He said nothing.

"Get a move on," Reyn chimed in. "You saw it, right? Us bashing that tin man's head in!"

"Hold on a second…" Shulk finally said.

"Here we go," Reyn replied. "I knew you'd start overthinking."

"There's not much time, Shulk," Sharla spoke up. "We've got to go now."

"Sharla's right," Reyn added. "We'll miss our chance to take that murdering Mechon down. And save Melia's father too!"

"I…okay…" was all Shulk could respond with.

I couldn't say I blamed him. We were stepping into unknown territory that had some kind of cryptic warning about the destruction of the world. If we weren't careful, we could have something on our hands that's worse than the Mechon.

…

The as gang entered the giant hall beyond the door, the first sound they heard in there was Andrew's loud voice going, "HEEEEEELLLLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Melia and the other's had to cover their ears to keep their ears from ringing. "Is anybody home? Any monsters that wanna jump out of the darkness and scare the living shit out of us? Because I'm gonna tell you right now, I don't scare easily."

Silence.

"Anybody? Nobody? Okay, that's cool."

"Andy's voice loud," Riki said with dizzy eyes. "Hurt Heropon hearing."

"That was rather unnecessary," Dunban input.

"I agree," Melia said. "Did you really have to do that?"

"As a matter of fact, yes, I did," Andrew replied. "Look at this place. Nothing's here in this room. Normally, aside from the door being locked, you would expect a place this big to flooded with monsters in order keep out anyone who was either dumb or lucky enough to have gotten that door opened. And I don't see anything here. Or hear anything here. Let's put the pieces together. If the High Entia really didn't want anyone to get into this place, they would've done more than just a simple lock on a door. This place should be flooded with hostile activity. Now, the Emperor could've already eliminated, but I don't see any bodies or smell any blood or see any signs of a struggle. So what does that tell us?"

Silence.

"It tells us that someone…or _something_ …wants us on this island.

As if on cue, flame of dark purple and azure flames appeared behind Andrew.

"And it looks like they just sent us an invitation."

Andrew started to walk towards the flame.

"Andrew, wait!" Shulk called out. "What are you doing?"

"This flame," Andrew replied. "I can sense some kind of power coming from this flame. I think it's a transporter of some kind. It's connected to somewhere else on Prison Island. If we're lucky, it might take us up to the top."

"Do you know that for sure?" Melia asked him.

"Nope. But we gotta get up there fast if we wanna save your father. A possible shortcut would be the best thing we could hope for."

Andrew kept walking towards the flame.

"Wait!" Melia called out. But Andrew had already stepped inside the flame. He's body became engulfed in it, and he disappeared. Melia's heart raced as she saw this. But why? Why did she feel like this? Watching him disappear like that…it felt like she was never going to see him again. _"But I barely know him,"_ she thought. _"And yet…why…? Is…is this what I'll feel…if he leaves for his world…?"_

Andrew's head suddenly poked back through the flame. "Umm…you guys coming or not? Because I'm pretty sure I'm standing on at the top of the island."

Melia felt the force that was squeezing her heart begin to release. Andrew was still here. He was still in this world. He wasn't going anywhere anytime soon. But even so, why did she care?

"You sure?" Shulk asked, bringing Melia out of her thoughts.

"Come and see for yourselves." Andrew disappeared again.

"Well," Shulk said, still at a loss for words. "Let's follow him." They all started running after Andrew. Melia, though still trying to get her thoughts together, was faster than any of them.

…

"You guys are slow," I said as the others emerged from the flame. "Come on, time to hoof it!" I took a running start ahead of them. They all followed.

"We must be outside the tower," Sharla observed.

"Yup!" I yelled behind me. "Shulk! What do you think? Is this the place you saw in your vision?"

Shulk stopped for a second to look over the edge of the pathway. In the distance we could see the gigantic horn on the head of the Bionis.

Shulk nodded. "This is it," he said. "This is the place I saw."

I suddenly heard what sounded like high-speed jet engines heading to us from below. I looked over the edge to see what I think was faced Mechon coming at us. It must've gotten in seconds before the force field when up.

"We've got company!" I shouted.

Everyone got their weapons ready. But as soon as the Mechon flew over us, it got struck with bolt of lightning and exploded with a loud BANG!

"WHOA!" I yelled. Everyone else let out yelps of surprise as well. "Okay, never mind, false alar-ACK, UGH, BLEACK!" Some of the smoke from the explosion got in my mouth. "Ugh, God, that is NASTY! Tastes like diesel!"

"Um Andrew?" Sharla asked. "Why are you coughing? You don't have any lungs."

She had a point. "Uh…right, right, I don't. Still tastes like shit though." I then noticed that Melia had taken off up a set of stairs behind us. "Melia, wait!" I yelled as I raced after her. She wasn't very fast so I was able to catch up to her pretty quick with my speed. We arrived at the top together. There we found Melia's father, standing in front of some giant purple skinned and white haired old geezer. His hair was white and extended all the way down to the floor.

"Father!" Melia cried out.

"Melia?" Sorean turned to face us. "Andrew? You're here too? Why?"

"Because I want to be," I said as I approached him. "Think of it as me repaying my debt to you." I got a good look at the giant now that I was closer. "Okay…so…um…there's a…giant…guy…here…"

"Father?" Melia asked. "Who is this?"

Shulk and the others showed up alongside me.

"Welcome," the giant suddenly spoke in a deep raspy voice. "True Heir to the Monodo."

"Uh…" I turned to Shulk. "He's talking about you, right?"

"I think so," he replied.

"You know him?"

"No."

"Well how does he know your name?"

"I'm…I'm not sure…" Shulk turned to the giant. "Who are you?"

"Check that guy out!" Reyn exclaimed, obviously impressed by the giant's size.

"So…uh…Emperor…? Who…or… _what_ …the hell is this guy?" I asked.

"He's one of the Giants, said to have become extinct eons ago," he replied. "This…is what our forefathers locked away."

I whistled in amazement. But…wait, why did they lock this guy away? He didn't look like my idea of something that could cause the end of the world. Something wasn't right with this picture.

"I am Zanza," the Giant introduced himself. "And I have waited centuries for you."

This guy knew Shulk was coming here?

"You waited for him?" Melia said in disbelief. "But I thought our forefathers imprisoned you here?"

"I forged the Monodo," Zanza responded. "It is molded from me. All who wield the sword are made known to me."

"Wait, back up a sec," I said. "You made this thing?" I pointed to the Monodo.

"Yes," Zanza answered. "I made it millennia ago to oppose Mechonis."

"But why are you imprisoned?" Shulk asked. I was asking myself the same thing. It was a little hard for me to believe the creator of the Monodo would be imprisoned in such a miserable state. I mean, shouldn't this guy be considered some kind of hero?

"The Monodo controls the principle upon which life is based," Zanza continued. "The source of your existence-Ether. Master the principle of life and all things will bow to you. Your power would be infinite." He turned to me. "A curious person you are," he said. "For you do not seem to possess any type ether in your body. Who…or what are you?"

"Outta this world is what I am," I said. "Neither Homs, High Entia, and clearly not Nopon. I'm a Human. Well…used to be a human before my body got destroyed in a rift between time and space."

"Indeed," Zanza commented. "You are not from Bionis. Or Mechonis. Your existence is…unusual…and the power you possess…it is…familiar to me…this is a power I have not sensed in a long, long time…"

He knew about the powers that I had? How? "Wait…do know what I am…right now, do you know what's happened to me?"

"Your power is familiar to me, but I do not remember its origin," Zanza replied. "What you are is…unknown to me. I am sorry."

Great. Just when I thought I could get some answers.

"When did you arrive in this world?" The Giant asked me.

"Yesterday."

"How much of this world do you know?"

"Only what's in the existing history books."

"I see." Zanza turned back to everyone else. "As you now know," he continued. "The sword gives the wilder the power of foresight. And I myself once used that sword against the Mechonis, and defeated it."

I felt just a tad bit pissed that the giant old man just turned away from me like I was unimportant. If I didn't feel weird about this guy already, I did now.

"You're telling us you beat the Mechonis with that tiny thing?!" Reyn said, not believing a word of this.

"Its appearance is merely and illusion," the Giant corrected. "Its form morphs to conform the will of its master. The power comes from within."

" _A transforming sword?"_ I thought. _"That's pretty cool. But wait, if Dunban was the previous wilder, why does it look the same now as it did then?"_

"But its power was feared by some. That is why the High Entia imprisoned me here long ago."

"That can't be true!" Melia exclaimed. "Our forefathers would've had a better reason!"

"Yeah, I gotta agree with the princess here," I added. "I mean, come on, you created the most awesome sword on this world, _and_ quelled one of the most dangerous enemies in the world, the Mechonis. Shouldn't you bee revered as a war hero?"

"The High Entia are what they are," Zanza replied. "Do you not believe your own eyes? Open your mind. New ruler of the High Entia."

That was a question dodge if I ever saw one. Whatever the reason Zanza was imprisoned, he clearly knew and was hiding it from us. The High Entia from long ago obviously knew about it too. Why else would they write that cryptic warning?

"The Monodo is the blade of the Bionis," Zanza continued. "The only force that can oppose the Mechonis. As the wielder grows, so too does the ability to control all things. Yet there is still power trapped in the sword. The Monado is in shackles."

What?

"Shackles?" Shulk asked.

"It is suppressed," Zanza answered.

A sword as strong as that was not at its full power?

"Wait a sec," I said realizing that there was one thing that the Monodo couldn't do. "The Monodo can't harm any sentient being on Bionis. Is that what you mean by it being in 'shackles?'"

"Yes," Zanza confirmed. "It was this constraint that gave rise to faced Mechon. Mechon which cannot be destroyed by the Monodo."

Wait…the Monodo can't harm sentient life on Bionis, and it couldn't harm faced Mechon either. There was a connection, Zanza just said there was.

Wait…

Was it possible that…

Could it be…?

…

"Hell!" Metal Faced yelled dodging another barrage of lightning attacks. Nemesis did the same, showing off how graceful and flexible her frame was.

"Rrrgh!" Metal Face growled in frustration. "This is beginning to wear thin!" He fired a beam of energy from his tail cannon, but it just bounced right off of the force field. More bolts of lightning fired at Metal Face in response to his attack. He was forced to dodge once again.

"Agh! Damn it all!" He was not enjoying this. Fighting was only fun when he was winning. Not the other way around. Metal Face began to circle around the island, desperate to try to find out where the force field was being created.

"Now, where is it?" he asked aloud, scanning the island. "Where's this power coming from?" His attention then focused at an immense concentration of Ether at the top of the tower. "Is that…?" A wicked grin spread across Metal Face's face when he realized what this was. "So, he's come out to play! That's cheating! Can't have that." He laughed with pleasure as he ascended high into the air. "Ahahahahahah! This is gonna be good!" He said taking a spear full of green liquid off of his back. "Try and stop my new toy!" Metal Face yelled, gripping the spear firmly in his claws, eager to pierce the Giant's heart. "Catch this, Zanza!"

…

If there was ever a time to get answers about what we were dealing with, now was the time. "Okay," I said. "So, these shackles…they're the reason why the Monodo can't hurt people. Are we to assume that this reason has something to do with faced Mechon?"

"You must find that out by yourself," was the only response I got from Zanza.

" _Tight lipped bastard,"_ I thought.

"I will remove those shackles for you," Zanza offered. "But you must take the Monodo and free me from this prison. Free me, and the Monodo will cut down anything you wish. Only a god," he looked at me when he said that last word. "Can stand in your way."

Now…I was both pissed and scared. It was probably because he wanted to be released for some reason. Or it could have been that Zanza looked at me when he said the word "god." Or it was probably both. But something in my head was yelling in my head not to let this happen. Actually, something was literally yelling in my head.

That same mysterious voice.

" _He must not be freed!"_

I grabbed Shulk by the hood of his jacket. "Oh no you don't," I said in a very serious voice. I grabbed Melia by the shoulder and pulled her along too.

"Andrew?!" She yelped in surprise.

"Everyone over here! Now!" I yelled at the others. They all followed. Even the Emperor.

"What's wrong?" Shulk asked me.

"Something about this…something about _him,_ " I looked over at Zanza when I said this, "feels very, very wrong."

"What do you mean?" Sorean asked.

"It's…I can't really explain it, but…it's this feeling I have…it's…something is telling me that Zanza must NOT under any circumstances be released from this island. Never."

"Why do you feel like that?" Dunban asked.

"Let's think about this," I continued. "Why is this guy imprisoned here in the first place?"

"He just said why," Sharla said. "The High Entia feared the Monodo and its power, and he was its creator."

"And I for one have a very difficult time believing that story," Melia input. "My people would've had a much better reason to imprison him here than merely fear."

I snapped my fingers at Melia. "Exactly," I said. "He said the reason he was sealed away was specifically because of the Monodo's power. But why is the creator here instead of the weapon? What do they have to fear from him? From what I can see, he's just an old guy locked up. But what if that's not all he is? You remember what that tablet said at the entrance? 'Should the being ever be released, it will spell doom and destruction for the entire world.' The only being I see here is him. And he's here for a reason. I don't know what that reason is, and I'm pretty sure we don't want to know."

"I need that power," Shulk said. "Melia I thought you of all people would understand!"

"I do…but…It's just…"

Wait…what…? What was Shulk talking about…?

"Hold on a minute!" Reyn cut in. "He only said he'd release this new power. Sounds like a good idea to me."

"Yeah, okay, fine," I said, "then we would have the advantage over the faced Mechon. But what happens to Zanza afterwards? What do we do about him? I mean he clearly has something to gain from being released. Otherwise he wouldn't ask for it."

"Andrew, please understand," Shulk said to me. "I must do what I set out to. The Mechon must pay!"

"I know, man, I know. Trust me, I understand, but to what end?"

"Young Shulk," Zanza interrupted, as though he could hear us. "I will not force you. I ask for nothing in return."

Now I know he was lying.

Shulk slowly walked towards Zanza, determination in his eyes. "I'll do it!" he said as he activated the Monodo. It blazed in a brilliant blue light.

"Shulk, think about this, damn it!" I yelled at him.

But he wasn't listening. He let out a mighty yell as he fired a shockwave of blue light at the mechanism. "RAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!"

The mechanism blazed a brilliant golden light and dissolved into nothing.

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!" Zanza roared out loudly. "Heir to the Monodo! Your will shall be done! Let the shackles be released!" His body then blazed a bright gold. The light covered the entire sky and island. It was so bright I had to shield my eyes.

"This party's over!"

A loud raspy voice, sounding like it was coming from a speaker echoed through the air. It sounded like it was coming from behind us. We all turned around to find the source. But before we could find anything, I giant spear slammed into the force field…and then punched right through it. The spear traveled faster then my eye could follow, and impaled Zanza through his heart.

"AAAAAGGGGHHH!" Zanza yelled in pain.

"No!" Sorean cried.

"Zanza!" Shulk yelled.

"Holy shit!" I said in shock. "Where did that come from?!"

"Aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh…" Zanza slumped backwards with the spear still stuck in his chest.

Shulk grunted in irritation as he turned to look behind him.

In the sky there were four faced Mechon. One of them looked different then the others. Three of them had giant hammers as weapons. But the one in front had razor sharp claws. Its right arm was stretched outward. This was the one that threw the spear.

"It's him!" Reyn exclaimed.

"Metal Face!" Shulk yelled with hatred in his voice.

"That's the guy that attacked Colony 9?"

The four Mechon flew down at us. I could get a clear look at his body now. And he looked as every bit as evil as I imagined he would. But he was a LOT bigger than I thought he'd be. They all were.

"Sorry we're late to the party!" He said with delight in his voice. "What do you think of our leader's gift?"

"How did you know we'd be here?!" Reyn yelled.

"What's that?" Metal Face jeered, making a motion that made it seem like he was having trouble hearing him. Clearly a taunt. "The poor insects are a little confused? We're here for the old fool!" He pointed to Zanza.

"W-wait a second, wait a second," I spoke up. "You knew about Zanza?!"

"Of course we knew, you daft idiot!" Metal Face yelled back. "We had that weapon there tailored specially for him!"

Zanza let out a weak groan. I looked back to him and saw that some type of green liquid was being pumped from the spear and into his body. Probably some kind of poison.

"If he's dead, he can't power up the Monodo," Metal Face continued. "You being here's just an added bonus!"

Okay, so clearly, whoever…or whatever was leading the Mechon clearly knew who Zanza was WAY before any of us did. What else did they know that we didn't?

Suddenly another face Mechon flew in front of us. But this one was different. It was silver and had a…well…graceful look to it. In fact it kinda looked like a female.

"A silver-faced Mechon!" Sharla exclaimed.

"Oi! Nemesis!" Metal Face yelled at the silver-faced one, who apparently was named Nemesis. "What are you playing at?"

Nemesis was looking at Zanza's body. _"Zanza,"_ she said in a gentle motherly voice. _"Respond, Zanza."_

I didn't hear her voice with my ears. I heard it with my mind.

"Why is she talking to Zanza's dead corpse?" I asked aloud.

"What are you talking about?" Melia said with a questioning look. "That Mechon's not saying anything."

Huh? Nobody else could hear her? Only I could?

" _I know you can hear me,"_ Nemesis continued.

" _I sense thought waves,"_ Zanza's voice echoed back in my mind.

" _He's still alive?"_ I thought. _"How?"_

Nemesis turned to face me. I stepped back just a little bit in surprise. Could she hear my thoughts too?

" _Umm…can you…can you hear me?"_ I asked her telepathically.

" _Yes, I can…"_ came her response. _"But…how is that possible? No Homs should be able to hear my thoughts. What are you?"_

" _Pay him no mind,"_ Zanza said. _"He is no Homs. He is not from Bionis or Mechonis. He is from a different world."_

" _How is that possible?_ " Nemesis replied in disbelief. _"Wait."_ She looked at me more closely. _"The power that you posses…how did you come across it?"_

" _Umm…a rift between time and space. I call it the Timeless Void. Why?"_

" _A rift…no…that is not possible…could it be…?"_

" _Enough!"_ Zanza yelled. _"What business do you have with me?"_

Nemesis turned back to Zanza. _"Zanza, how many more will you sacrifice?"_

" _Who are you to talk to me?"_ Zanza replied back angrily. _"How dare you! You know nothing."_

" _I am here to talk, Zanza,"_ Nemesis said gently.

" _Uh, little lost here,"_ I said. _"Talk about what, exactly, what's going on?"_

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Shulk's screeching battle cry brought me out of my trance. He was charging at Nemesis, who turned to face Shulk, looking quite shocked.

"Shulk, wait!" I yelled. Whoever Nemesis was, she clearly wasn't a threat.

But Shulk wasn't listening. "Mechon!" He yelled as he slashed at Nemesis. She jumped over his swing and landed behind him with a flip on her feet. "You will pay for what you've done!"

"Please wait!" Nemesis said, this time using her real voice. "I mean you no harm!"

Thought so.

"Give us back Fiora!" Shulk continued to yell, jumping into the air for a downward vertical slash. "GIVE HER BACK!" But his blade was blocked by Metal Face's claws, knocking backwards onto his back, and back flipping onto his feet.

"I told you to stay outta the way, boy!" He shouted, backhanding Shulk across the chest. Shulk tumbled backwards towards Zanza's body, dropping the Monodo in the process.

"Shulk!" Dunban yelled.

"Weak!" Metal Face taunted. "Weak and pathetic!" He started charging at us.

That settled it. Nemesis may not have been a threat, but Metal Face clearly was. "Wanna bet, tin can?!" I yelled back, igniting my arms and legs.

Sharla started to fire her rifle at Metal Face, but he just blocked the shots with his claws. Reyn and Dunban charged at the mechanical monster and bashed their weapons into his legs. Metal Face grunted in irritation and swatted Reyn away from his right leg like a fly, while he simply just kicked Dunban off of his right.

"Dunban!" Melia shouted, firing a blast of Ether from her hand. It hit Metal Face dead on, but it didn't seem to do much.

"Stupid bug!" Metal Face yelled in frustration and went for Melia.

"Not on my watch!" I yelled. "CHAOS SHOT!" I fired a dark energy orb form my hand. It hit ol' Tin Can square in the face.

"AGH!" He yelled. "What?!"

"YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" I jumped high into air. "BLAZING DIVE!" I performed a dive kick, but Metal Face blocked it with his arm. It did make him stagger a bit though. I then jumped off of his arm and threw my fist outward, summoning the demonic version on my hand, letting the velocity carry me forward. "DEATH'S HAND!" I struck a hard punch right at Metal Faces jaw.

"AAAAAGGGHHH!" Metal Face yelled in pain. I landed a few feet to his right. "What…what are you doing…? How can you damage me?!"

"Oh trust me, I haven't even begun to damage you!"

"Ahahahahahahah!" The mechanical monster laughed with delight. "Now this is something! A Homs that can actually challenge me without the help of the Monodo! Well done, boy! Well done! You my friend have some serious guts!"

"Correction," I said. "I actually don't have any! And I'm not a Homs either! Or High Entia, and clearly not Nopon! I'm something else entirely!" I actually liked the sound of that last sentence.

"A curious one you are," Metal Face said. "But let's see how proud of yourself you are when one of your friends gets hurt!" He started to perform an uppercut slash at Melia.

"Fuck that," I said under my breath and dashed off my feet towards Melia at a blazing speed. In fact as I did that, time seemed to slow down.

"What..?" I couldn't believe this. "How fast am I moving?"

As soon as I tackled Melia, the flow of time returned to normal. The princess was safe. But my back wasn't. I got slashed across the back by Metal Face's claws.

"AAAGH!"

"Andrew!" Melia yelled.

"Ow! Please, not in my ear," I said to her.

"Melia!" The Emperor cried out to her daughter.

"Look at you!" Metal Face cackled. "Aside from that boy in blue, you're all worthless without the Monodo!" He turned to face Dunban. "Isn't that right, Dunban?"

Dunban just looked at him with a stunned gaze. "What…or who are you?!" He pointed his sword at the menace. "How do you know me?!"

That was a good question. How did this towering monster know Dunban? 

"Let's see if this jogs your memory!" He yelled as he jumped into the air and dived back down, claws first. They impaled the ground with the sound of shattering stone. Dunban dodged out of the way just in time.

"He moves just like…" Dunban muttered, clearly remembering something. Metal Face continued his attempts to impale Dunban, but he was very swift on his feet. "But that's impossible!"

Clearly Metal Face's fighting style was making Dunban remember something. Or someone.

"Dunban!" Reyn said rushing to his side.

Meanwhile, Sharla was firing round after round at the bronze armored Mechons. They were probably the Xord copies that Shulk and the others told me about.

"Cease immediately!" Nemesis yelled as she dashed in front of the Xord Mechons. "They are not our targets!"

Sharla looked confused. Couldn't blame here, I was a little confused too. Why was Nemesis so insistent on not attacking us?

"Any last words?!" Metal Face roared at Dunban an Reyn who were lying on the ground.

Forget about Nemesis, Metal Face came first. I

"DIE!" The monster

"BIND CHAIN!" I shot out a web of dark chains and wrapped Metal Face in them, immobilizing him.

"AAAGH! Who dares?!" Metal Face yelled furiously.

"Emperor!" I shouted.

Sorean slammed his staff into the ground and the top of the island fired bolts of lightning at Metal Face's frame.

"AAAAAGGHHHHHAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUHHHHH!"

"Stop at once, Mechon!" Sorean demanded, firing more lightning.

"GAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

Metal Face roared in pain and fury, until finally, he collapsed on his knees, motionless.

"Father!" Melia cried out as he ran over to the Emperor, who embraced her in a hug.

"Are you hurt, Melia?" he asked, worriedly.

"No, father," she replied gently.

"Awww, man!" I said feeling my back, which was already healed. "This was my favorite jacket!"

Melia looked at me and chuckled a little bit. I smiled back and laughed a bit too.

We had done it.

We saved Melia's father.

…

"You're gonna pay for that…"

…No…

It can't be…

"YOU BAG OF BONES!"

NO!

Metal Face…HE WAS STILL ALIVE!

"Oh, you have GOTTA BE FRICKIN' KIDDING ME!"

His body roared back to life and he bashed me and the other's out of the way and aimed his claws at Sorean.

"Melia!" He yelled as he pushed his daughter away from him.

Metal Face thrust his claws forward.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" I yelled as I dashed in front of the Emperor seconds before his claws reached His Majesty.

But I wasn't fast enough to block it.

Metal Face rammed his claws right through me.

"AAAGGGHHH!"

It stung.

It burned.

And it FUCKING HURT!

"ANDREW!" Dunban yelled.

"Owwww…" I said weakly.

Metal Face ripped his claws out of me with blood dripping from them.

…

Wait, what?

I didn't have any blood.

…

Oh no…

I turned around and saw Sorean, drenched in blood.

"FATHER!" Melia cried.

"EMPEROR!" Shulk shouted in despair.

The emperor collapsed onto the putting me into view of the others.

"Andrew…?" Melia said weakly.

I looked at where I was stabbed. There was a hole in my chest that went all the way to the back. My clothes were drenched in blood. But I knew it wasn't my blood.

"Shit…I am not having a good day…"

I then collapsed onto the ground and my vision went dark.

I heard Melia scream before my hearing failed me.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

…

" _Get up!"_

My eye's shot open. I was laying stone ground. Still on Prison Island.

" _You must get up at once!"_

It was Nemesis's voice echoing inside my head.

" _Nemesis? Wait…how…how am I still..?"_

" _The power that you possess does not allow you to die a mortal's death."_

What?!

" _So…wait…does that mean I'm immortal…?"_

" _I am not sure…you cannot die in the same way that normal people can…but I do not know if that means you are entirely immortal…"_

Great. Still no answers.

" _Regardless,"_ she continued. _"You must witness what is about to happen."_

" _What do you mean…?"_

" _Heir to the Monodo."_

Zanza's voice echo in my head. I slowly looked up at Zanza's body. Still motionless.

"Zanza!" Shulk exclaimed. "You're alive!"

" _Wait, how can he hear his voice?"_ I asked Nemesis.

" _Zanza is connected to the Monodo, and thus to its wielder,"_ she responded.

" _What does that mean?"_

"Give me the power I need!" Shulk pleaded holding the Monodo up to Zanza's body.

" _I am now a mere shell,"_ Zanza replied. _"The power is already yours."_

" _What?!"_

"What?!" Shulk repeated my thoughts.

" _The shackles have been broken,"_ Zanza continued. _"Wield the sword. It bends to your will. Think of your enemy, and power to defeat them is yours! Ahhhhhh…"_

Zanza gave out his final breath and burst into a brilliant green light. Looked like Ether. Some of it flowed into Shulk's body. Not really sure why though.

"Zanza…" Shulk said as he looked at the Monodo. "Mechon…it's not over. The people of Bionis will never let you triumph!"

The Monodo blazed a brilliant azure blue as Shulk raised it into the sky. "RRRRRAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" In the circle of the Monodo appeared a new symbol. It read, "Person." The light then faded, revealing the Monodo in a new form.

"It's changing form!" Melia said, amazed.

The sheath now looked bulkier and larger in size. It opened up and a massive blade of light extended from it. Shulk ran towards Metal Face.

"Be careful!" Nemesis warned Metal Face. "We cannot withstand such power!"

"This ends now!" Shulk yelled.

"Hold on, Shulk!" I said finally getting to me legs. "I'm not out of the game yet!"

"Andrew?!" Melia exclaimed, shocked.

"You're alive!" Reyn called out.

"What the hell?!" Metal Face roared. "How is this possible?! I just ran you through!"

"Yup, and it hurt like a bitch! Congratulations, bolt brain! You've now put me in a really bad mood! So now that you've got the full power of the Monodo against you, and a pissed off other-dimensional guy who clearly doesn't die that easily, your day just got a helluva lot worse! Oh, yeah, and you also stabbed the Emperor, so there's also that. Need I say more?!"

Everyone just looked at me with stunned eyes.

"No? Good! NOW LET'S GET DOWN TO BUSSINESS! RRRRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I roared loudly as my body became enveloped in a raging giant dark purple flame. I heard some kind of demonic roar behind me. I looked and saw some kind of dark purple spectral monster form behind me. Its eyes and mouth were an azure blue.

Wait, that was the same face I saw when I grabbed the purple orb!

"Okay," I said, a little surprised. "That's new."

AN: Sorry this took so long. TUNE IN NEXT TIME!


	6. Chapter 4-It's Time To Kick Metal!

AN: AND NOW! SHIT GETS REAL!

Chapter Four-It's Time To Kick Metal And Blast Music! And I'm Never Out of Music!

 _What is lost can be regained._

 _The form, however, will be different._

Melia looked at the boy in blue with utter amazement in her eyes. He had survived a fatal blow from that murdering Mechon! The hole in his chest had completely healed. But what did this mean? Was he immortal? Could nothing kill him? He could regenerate his limbs. He can open gates between time and space. He was fast on his feet, and his punches and kicks were strong and true. He could jump great distances. And now he cheated death. On top of it, some kind of ghostly monster had appeared behind him.

" _Is this what Shulk had seen in his vision of him?"_ Melia asked herself. _"What else is he capable of? Just how powerful is he?"_

Melia had also noticed something else about Andrew that had changed. His eyes. They were no longer emerald. Now, his irises were a deep lilac purple, and his pupils had become narrow vertical slits. Melia looked long and hard at his eyes. They had the same focus and determination as when they were facing against that mysterious monster. But now, they had an intense gaze of rage in them.

"Impressive display!" Metal Face cackled, bringing Melia out of her stupor. "But if you think that's enough to scare me, guess again! DEAD WAY!" Metal Face performed an upper cut slash at Andrew, but the boy parried it. He had lazily made a backhand brushing movement, with the monster behind him doing the same in unison.

"What?!" the faced Mechon yelled, not believing what just happened.

"For the Emperor," Andrew said under his breath and immediately performed an uppercut punch to Metal Face's jaw, sending Metal Face up into the air.

"AAUGH!"

Andrew then jumped into the air following Metal Face and landed a downward punch on the Mechon's back, driving him into the ground.

"OONNGH!"

"Hey, you guys aren't gonna let me hog all the glory are you?" Andrew said with a smile as he landed.

Melia could've sworn that she saw a pair of fangs in his teeth when he grinned.

"No way!" Reyn said back, smiling as well. "Shulk!"

Shulk nodded at his best friend's cue. "MONODO ENCHANT!" Shulk yelled as a symbol that read "Machine" appeared in the center ring, causing the blade to glow purple. With a single swing of his sword, a burst of purple light shot out from the sheath, causing everyone's weapons to glow with a purple aura. With the exception of Andrew and Dunban, whom was wielding a weapon that could cut through Mechon armor just fine, everyone could now do sufficient damage to their mechanical foe.

"Show time," Andrew said, as he whipped out his…

" _What was that thing called again,"_ Melia asked herself. _"An I….something?"_

Andrew then pressed a button on his device and the air became enveloped in strange and enchanting music that no one had ever heard before.

(Cue Unfinished Battle)

"COME ON!" Metal Face yelled and thrust a claw forward at the distracted Andrew. Melia summoned a large slab of earth in front of Andrew to act as a shield. She wasn't sure if he really couldn't die, but she definitely did not want to see him get stabbed again. Andrew jumped back a few feet in realization that Metal Face was aiming for him again. No sooner than the did, a small wall of earth appeared in front of him, slowing down Metal Face's claw as it ran right through the solid rock.

Andrew saw an opportunity. "YA!" he yelled as he thrust his left foot forward and kicked the tip of the Mechon's claws back through the rock, which shattered completely. Andrew looked back at his friend and gave her another thumbs up. Melia smiled sweetly in response.

"RIKI SNEAKY!" Riki banged his club up against the back of Metal Face's frame. The Mechon turned and gave a questioning look at the Nopon, as if to say, "What exactly are you doing here?"

"WORLDLY SLASH!" Dunban charged forward with an uppercut slash at Metal Face's right leg.

"MNH!" This brought Metal Face back to the battle, and reminded him of his dislike for Dunban. "You're beginning to become a real thorn in my side, Dunban!" He dove his claws at the one-handed hero, but Dunban turned to his side and blocked it, holding his sword upside down in his hand. "I'm going to cleave you in two and break that self-righteous attitude of yours."

"You can try!" Dunban yelled back as he struggled against the weight of the Mechons arm.

"Oh I will do more than that!"

"SWORD DRIVE!" Reyn yelled, thrusting his Scrap Driver forward. Metal Face, unfortunately, saw it coming and moved is left claw forward to parry it. Reyn staggered backwards, and then brought up his shield to block another swing from the claw.

"The same goes for your irritating friends as well!" The Mechon said with an evil grin. He brushed off Dunban and Reyn, leaving Andrew another opening. He charged at Metal Face with another Death's Hand, but it was blocked. It caught Metal Face off guard once, but he'd be damned if he let it happen again. Andrew and Metal Face then began to exchange blow after blow, metal claws against ghostly hands. At one point, one of Andrew's blows was pushed back, leaving him open for an attack. But before Metal Face had the chance to make a move, Andrew grinned and bent down on one hand, revealing Shulk with his brand new Monodo.

Shulk, running at Metal Face, placed one foot on Andrew's back, using him as a boost, and leapt into the air. Andrew followed in pursuit as he stood on his hands and hurled himself at the towering Mechon feet first.

"STREAM EDGE!" Shulk unleashed a mighty horizontal slash at Metal Face's torso. He was unprepared for this surprise attack, and staggered backwards. He was even less prepared for Andrew flying right at him. Andrew struck the underside of Metal Face's jaw, with two gigantic, demonic, ghostlike feet dealing a heavier blow. Metal Face's head bent backward as Andrew's velocity carried him to the air.

"Damn you!" Metal Face roared as he slashed at Andrew, whom was in mid flight. Metal Face only managed to slice off Andrew's right arm, but it was enough to make him fumble in pain and drop to the ground, clutching his right arm socket. "If you're the only one I can't kill, I'll just bury you alive! KILLING CLAW!" Metal Face raised one of his claws in preparation to ram Andrew into the ground.

"MONODO SHIELD!" Shulk cried out, turning the blade of the Monodo yellow. With a mighty three sixty-degree spin, Shulk unleashed a bright yellow shockwave that enveloped everyone in a yellow barrier of light. Metal Face's Killing Claw simply bounced off of the barrier surrounding Andrew, resulting the Mechon to grunt in frustration.

Melia quickly picked up her father's staff and slammed it into the ground, igniting more thunderbolts. "Stay away from him, you filth!" Melia yelled furiously.

Metal Face roared in fury and frustration. He was getting real sick of that attack. And Andrew was getting real sick of Metal face. A furious burst of dark mist shot from his right arm socket and took the form of a giant claw. It grabbed Metal Face's face, and slammed it into the ground repeatedly. "STOP TEARING UP MY JACKET, YOU FUCKING ASS HOLE!" Andrew roared hoarsely in pure rage. He then let go of Metal Face and regenerated his arm while the Mechon was recovering from a serious headache. With Andrew's right hand back in action, but still covered in dark flames, Andrew straightened his fingers and stabbed it into the ground with the spectral being behind him doing the same. "SHADOW SPIKE!" Andrew yelled, and immediately, a whole bunch of shadowy looking spikes rose up from the ground and impaled Metal Face in various sections of his armor.

"AUGH! WHAT?!"

"Shulk! Now!" Andrew signaled.

"BACK SLASH!" Shulk unleashed a powerful vertical slash down Metal Faces back.

"METAL BLAST!" Sharla cried out as she fired a heavy metal bullet that tore right through Metal Face's knees.

"WAR SWING!" Reyn twirled around like a tornado cutting up Metal Face's claws outstretched on the ground.

"Heropon strongest of all! TANTRUM!" Riki slammed his club into the ground, creating three shockwaves that damaged the towering Mechon's legs.

"STEEL STRIKE!" Dunban yelled as he mightily punched down Metal Face's left leg, toppling the Mechon.

"MIND BLAST!" Melia fired a blast of Ether from her hand at one of Metal Face's wings.

"GAAAAAHHHH! THAT'S! IT!" Metal Face furiously broke the spikes holding him. Since the spikes were all part of Andrew's arm, this caused it to explode off of his body.

"AH, FUCK!" Andrew yelled in pain.

"I've had just about enough of you lot!" Metal Face yelled as he transformed into jet mode and aimed his cannon at the group, charging it full of energy. Andrew quickly regenerated his arm and started to charge both of his hands with dark energy. "GRAND SHOT!" Metal Face yelled as he fired a bright blue beam from his cannon.

"DESPAIR!" Andrew yelled back as he fired back a powerful dark beam. The two masses of energy clashed against each other, struggling to gain the upper hand. The both of them grunted furiously against the force of their attacks. Melia watched both in awe and fear. Though Andrew had an incredible amount of power, he was still a novice at battle and clearly did not know what he was capable of. If he didn't put all of his energy into this attack, Metal Face's Grand Shot would most likely disintegrate Andrew's body.

" _He can survive getting his limbs cut off and can live through impalement,"_ Melia thought to herself. _"But I do not know if he can survive having his entire self destroyed."_ And she hoped never to find out either.

Andrew was thinking the same thoughts. _"Best not to take that chance. There's still a lot about my power that I don't know about. Right now I'm just making things up as I go."_ Andrew's knees started to buckle underneath him.

"Give it up, boy!" Metal Faced roared, knowing that victory was near.

" _Ugh! Damn! If I don't think of something quick…"_ Andrew then looked at the monster behind him. It was doing nothing, only staring at Metal Face. But after a few moments, it turned to Andrew with a look on his face that said, "What is troubling you?"

" _Time Eater…"_ A voice echoed inside Andrew's head.

" _Time…Eater…is…is that…what you're called…?"_ Andrew wondered in his head. _"Time Eater…or whatever you are…if…if you're the same…thing that I found in the Timeless Void…if this thing that's inside me is you…then it's you who's keeping me alive. And I'm grateful for that. I don't know the full extent of my power…I don't know if I'm immortal…and I definitely don't know if there's a way for me to return home…but…I do know…if I can go back…then I need this power to save everyone…and I definitely don't want to die before then…so please…if you can…for as long as you're with me…please lend me your strength!"_

Andrew then fell to his knees with Metal Face's Grand Shot inching closer to him. "DIE!"

" _If that is your will,"_ the voice in Andrew's head echoed again. _"Then it_ is _my command…master."_

Melia then saw Andrew's eyes glow a bright azure blue, as his body became enveloped in a flame of dark purple and a shade of blue the same color as his glowing eyes. Somehow she could feel an intense power building up within him that caused the Ether around her to vibrate. _"This power…! What is this?!"_

"RRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!" Andrew felt a huge wave of energy unlock within the orb in his chest and channeled that power through his arms. Time Eater behind him did the same and added another Despair attack to Andrew's, increasing the beams power.

"WHAT?!" Metal Face couldn't believe his eyes.

"IT'S OVER, METAL FACE!" Andrew yelled at the top of his lungs. He let the flow of energy flood his hands, pushing the Mechon's grand shot back towards him, resulting in the destruction of his cannon. Metal Face yelled in pain and fury.

"Shulk! Finish this bastard!" Andrew yelled.

Shulk nodded and activated another Monodo Art. A symbol that read "Slash" appeared in the center ring, and the length of the blade of light became massive in size. "MONODO BUSTER!" Shulk yelled as he brought down the massive blade on Metal Face's left arm, slicing it clean off!

"AAAAUUUGGHHH!" Metal Face roared as the blow sent him toppling near the stairs. Finally, the murdering Mechon had been bested.

…

"YOOOOUUUU!" Metal Face was no doubt furious with us now.

"You will know the pain and suffering you caused the Emperor and Fiora!" Shulk yelled angrily, as he raised his blade for another blow.

"Desist!" Nemesis suddenly dashed in front of Shulk to guard Metal Face. Shulk however did not waver in his attack and slashed right through Nemesis's chest, blasting off some of the armor plating.

"What?!" Shulk said in disbelief. My thought's exactly. Metal Face was hell bent on wiping us out, but Nemesis was acting like she didn't want to fight at all. She just wanted to talk this through with Zanza, and possibly the rest of us. Just who the hell was she? Personally I would've liked to hear what was on this Mechon's mind, but with Metal Face's intervention, that was impossible.

"Whoa!" Reyn exclaimed excitedly. "Look at them go!"

"The Monodo has changed!" Dunban said, equally impressed. "And Andrew's power is incredible!"

"Guh!" Nemesis had lost her balance from the blow and staggered onto one knee with her left hand down on the ground to prop her up.

" _Good!"_ I heard Zanza's voice echo in my head again. Sounded like he was addressing Shulk. _"Now you feel it! Hahah! Swing the blade to your heart's content!"_

I doubt the others could hear this.

"Wait," Nemesis said as the rest of the armor on her chest crumbled away. What was revealed was a big shock to every one. Behind the armor of the chest looked like some kind of cockpit. And inside was…

" _I see now,"_ Zanza said after a bit of silence. _"It is as I suspected. Just like the mysterious boy from another world, you too are someone who exists outside the pre-established harmony."_

What? What the hell was that supposed to mean?

Shulk just stared in disbelief at what he was seeing in the cockpit. "Is that…a Homs?!"

"I knew it…" I said under my breath. Inside the faced Mechon was person with a female frame that was in white and gold plated armor. She was wearing a mask that concealed her face. It made sense now. If the Monodo couldn't damage intelligent life on Bionis, the reason the Monodo couldn't do damaged against faced Mechon must've been because there were people piloting them. If that were the case, then that meant that Metal Face had a pilot as well.

The woman inside pressed a switch on the side of her head, collapsing the mask into the two semicircle rings around her head. What was revealed was the face of a young girl with short brown hair and emerald green eyes.

"No way!" Reyn said in disbelief.

"What?" I asked. "Do you know her?"

"Fiora…!" Shulk said with his voice shaky.

What? Fiora? Shulk's friend who died in Colony 9? But…how was that possible, Shulk told me Metal Face killed her right in front of her eyes.

"Fiora…!" Dunban said, with both surprise and relief in his voice. No doubt he was happy to see his dear sister again, even under the strangest of circumstances. "You're still alive…!"

Nemesis's left shoulder joint suddenly exploded causing the Mechon to stager a bit. "Zanza," Fiora continued. "You have not changed at all. That is clear. But still, I cannot…"

Cannot what? What was going on here? How did she know about Zanza? And if she really was Fiora, why didn't she recognize her friends?

" _Do as you please,"_ Zanza said with apathy in his voice. Did Zanza know something about Fiora? And if so, why did it sound like he detested her?

The Nemesis frame got back up and started to take off.

"Fiora!" Dunban cried out, chasing after his sister.

"Wait!" Shulk yelled following in pursuit.

"Hold on a sec," I called out to Mechon girl. "I want some answers, damn it!"

"My mission is complete," the girl said to whoever her commanding officer was. "Returning to base." Nemesis then dashed off into the distance with the rest of the faced Mechon behind her.

Metal Face flew beside us glaring at Dunban and clutching where his left arm used to be. "You were lucky this time, Dunban," he said with hate in his voice. "But next time, I'll slice you in two!" He then took off into the distance as well.

"Fiora!" Shulk yelled out desperately as he races down the stairs. "It's me, Shulk! FIORAAAAAA!"

It was no use. The Mechons were long gone now. The battle had ended.

"The Emperor!" I suddenly had remembered Sorean, and race back up stairs.

"Wait!" Melia rushed up with me to her father. When we got to his body, I checked for a pulse.

"He's still alive," I said. "Just barely."

Melia then began to break out in tears. Sharla then sat down next to us. "Sharla, is there anything you can do?" I asked her.

"I wish there were," she replied grimly. "But he's lost too much blood. I'm sorry."

Now I was starting to tear up. Here was the man who had been so kind to me when I first came into this world. And now he was going to disappear forever. I would never get to talk to him again. I had tried to protect him. I tried to help Shulk change the future. But I failed.

"We were to late…again," Shulk said, his voice shaky with sadness. "I saw it. I knew ith would happen!"

"Shulk…" Sharla looked at her friend with eyes of sympathy.

"Why?" Reyn asked to no one in particular. "Why did this have to happen?"

"I don't really think there is a reason," I said. "It just…did…despite our efforts, it just did…"

"Father…" Melia said through teary eyes.

Sorean struggled to speak his last words. "Melia…the hope of our people…you must not cry…"

"Don't say that!" Melia interjected, her tears over flowing now. "I don't care how improper it is, let me cry!" There was no stopping her now. Melia just broke down and cried into her father's clothes.

Sorean then looked at me. "Andrew…you are…unharmed…"

I felt extremely guilty now. I felt like my inability to die normally caused Sorean to be robbed of his life. I felt like I had taken it from him. "Yeah…" I said weakly. "Your Highness, I…I am so sorry…I tried to save you…I really did…you were so kind to me…to a stranger that was from somewhere else…to someone you barely knew…I wanted to repay that kindness…but…I…I couldn't…"

"That is good…" Sorean replied to me. "I am glad you are still here…Melia…would be even more upset…if you fell here…"

"Wh…what…?" I wasn't sure about that.

"Father!" Melia cried out. "Please don't speak! I don't want to lose you either!" She kept on crying. "Why does it have to be me?! If all it takes is to half Homs?"

Her father gave her a confused look. "Is…that what you think…? You are very much mistaken…"

"But…!"

"To…become the hope…of the High Entia…is a fate…that you choose for yourself…" the Emperor continued with his last breaths. "As long as you remember this…it is certain…that you will be worthy…of that name…but remember this also…it is not because you are the hope of the High Entia that I love you…it is because I love you that I wish for you to become that hope…" He then turned to Shulk. "Heir to the Monado…I leave the sword in your hands…the sword my forefather's sealed away. With it, you can succeed…"

"Your Majesty…" Shulk replied sadly.

The Emperor then looked at me. "Andrew…that you would risk yourself to save me…although things did not work out in your favor…your effort was commendable…do not punish yourself with guilt…I do not blame you…rather…I'm proud…to call you…a friend…and so I ask…will you heed this old man's last selfish request…?

I nodded. "Yes…?"

"Please…will you…watch over Melia…in my stead…?"

"What…?"

"Father…?"

"I…do not ask…you…to replace me…but…there will be times…when my daughter will feel lost…please…guide her heart…"

The tears started to stream down my face. "I…I never…I never got to…tell you about my world…"

Sorean made a sad smile. "That is…unfortunate…but perhaps…I'll be able to see it in the afterlife…"

"Yeah…" I said through my tears. "Yeah…maybe…"

Sorean then turned to his daughter. "Melia…cry…for as long as you must…but…when your tears are dry…"

He never finished that sentence, for he gave his final breath and passed away.

"Father, no!" Melia cried out, desperately trying to shake him awake. But we all knew it was a futile effort.

"Melia," Shulk said as he stood up. "Come with me."

Melia was still looking at her father. "Shulk…I…"

"You'll have plenty of time to think about your empire and your people's hopes," Shulk continued. "If you need me, I will be by your side. But you area n individual. You are Melia Antiqua. And you can't let them get away with this!"

Melia closed her eyes for a second to think about this. Then she opened them with a fire in here deep blue eyes. "You're right," she said. My foremost concern is making them pay! But…"

I was a little jealous of what Shulk just said. He was lifting Melia's spirit's up in a way that I couldn't. Sorean had told me to guide her…but…right now…I wasn't sure how to…

"Andrew…" Melia said to me.

"Huh…?"

"I've seen you survive what should've killed you…can you…please…is it possible…for you to do the same thing to my father that you do to yourself…?"

That…took me off guard…

"I…I don't….I'm not sure if…I don't know…"

"You can't…can you…?" she said to me dryly.

"Melia…I…I…" I felt a huge lump in my throat. Somehow I couldn't shake the feeling that was starting to dislike me because I was unable to save her father. I mean…how was this fair. I tried to save him! And he still died! Why?! Why did it have to be him?! It should've been me! Why couldn't I have died?!

" _The power that you possess does not allow you to die a mortal's death."_

Fiora's words echoed in my head. And with that I then realized the truth about myself. I turned and ran away. Far, far away from everyone.

"Oi! Andrew!" Reyn called after me.

"Where are you going?!" Dunban yelled.

I didn't answer them. Melia probably hated me, and the others might be afraid of me. I didn't care what Reyn had yelled at me before. Because the truth…the truth was…

"I really am a monster…"

…

Once the Homs had left, Alvis started ascending the stairs on Prison Island. He was there to retrieve the spear that Metal Face had thrown. As he approached, he had a smile on his face.

"Well played indeed, Zanza," he said to a group of green particles swirling around the tip of the spear.

Zanza's disembodied voice then chuckled in response. _"I do what is necessary for the world."_

Alvis then leaned on the spear. "I could very easily have stood in for you," he offered.

" _Your sentiment is appreciated,"_ Zanza replied. _"I take it you have already met that…odd boy?"_

"Yes," the young Homs answered. "What of him?"

" _He is no ordinary person,"_ Zanza explained with a serious tone. _"I saw him fight. His power was extraordinary. And it appears that he cannot die in the same way as people can."_

"Do you mean to say that he is immortal?"

" _Possibly…but I am not sure. The power that he wields is…familiar to me. It is a similar power that a former friend of mine once had…a former friend who should be long gone from all existing worlds…"_

"What do you mean by that…?" Alvis asked his mentor.

" _Nothing that should concern you. Even if he posses that same power, he is a novice. We will deal with him when the time comes. For now, let us observe."_

Alvis nodded in agreement and turned towards the sky.

" _Hmm,"_ Zanza pondered as the wind carried his remains off into the distance. _"I see a storm on the horizon."_

…

"And finally," Kalian announced. "Crown Princess Melia's accession will take place one year from today. Until such time, as decreed by the crown princess, I shall assume imperial duties as regent."

It was the morning after the battle on Prison Island. Everyone who served the royal family was gathered in the audience chamber in Alcamoth Palace. Melia had requested to her older brother that she is made Empress a year later, after the fight with the Mechon was over. She had felt the need to settle the score against Metal Face, so that her father could rest in peace.

"If there is anyone who objects," Kalian continued. "State your grievances now."

The room was silent. Then…

"All the ministries are unanimous," Lorithia spoke up. "We have no objection to Her Majesty's decree."

Kalian nodded. "To each and every one of you, our thanks."

Melia bowed in gratitude.

"If I may, Your Highness," Lorithia added. "I would like to propose a round-table discussion on strategy concerning the Mechon."

"Ah," Kalian agreed. "What to do about the Mechon. Our defenses must be shored up immediately."

"Not only our defenses, Your Highness," Lorithia corrected the regent.

"Do you suggest an offensive approach?" Kalian was shocked at the notion. "While the capital still licks its wounds?"

Lorithia nodded with a smile. "The Ministry of Research has the ideal solution."

…

In the guest room, Shulk and the gang were in a dead silence, still trying to contemplate the events from last night. Dunban and Andrew however were not present. Nobody knew where they were.

"Friends act strange," Riki said, trying to break the silence. "Are friends sad? Riki sad too because of empty belly."

"Riki, we already ate," Reyn said, a little irritated at Riki's ignorance. "Us Homs don't get upset just because we're hungry."

"Not hungry?" Riki said surprised. "Hom Hom must have small bellies. Riki jealous!"

"Ugh, we've got to get our minds of this somehow," Sharla interrupted. "Dunban's locked himself away ever since we came back. And no one in the capital has seen Andrew."

"Yeah," Reyn said. "Why did he just run off like that?"

"It might have something to do with that stupid question I asked him," a young girl's voice said. Everyone turned to face Melia, who had just entered the room.

"Melia," Shulk said. "How are you?"

"What do you mean?" asked the young princess. "If you are talking about Father, I'm fine. I have no choice but to look to the future."

"You're stronger than me, Melia," Shulk complimented.

"Do not mock me," Melia said bluntly. "And besides, there is one person I am worried about."

"Do you mean Andrew?" Reyn asked.

"Yes," she replied. "I can't help but think that he's avoiding me."

"Why would he do that?" Shulk wondered.

"He probably thinks Melia is cross with him," Sharla said. "And might also think that we're scared of him."

"Why?" Reyn didn't understand.

"Because he can't die," Melia said. "I can understand his fears. But I am not angry with him. I could never be angry with him. What does it matter if he is unable to die? He was willing to go to Prison Island on his own just to save my father. He stood in front of that Mechon's attack just to protect him. And though he did not succeed, I shall not hold any ill will towards him. If my father does not blame him, then neither shall I."

"Spoken like a true princess," Reyn said. "I bet your father would be proud."

"Thank you Reyn," Melia said, then closed her eyes and placed her hand on her chest. _"Andrew…"_ __she thought. _"You must be in more pain than ever right now. You're probably torturing yourself with so much negativity."_

"Does Melly want to cheer Andy up?" Riki asked.

"I do," she replied. "But first, who was that girl piloting the silver faced Mechon? You acted like you knew her."

There was an awkward moment of silence. Then Shulk spoke up.

"We thought she was killed in Colony 9," he said, remembering the horror he felt at watching her die.

"She didn't even recognize us," Reyn said grimly. "She's not the Fiora I remember."

"It looked like Fiora," Shulk pondered. "But if it was her…then I can't imagine how Dunban feels." Shulk exited the guest room as he said this.

"What did he mean?" Sharla asked Reyn, not understanding what Shulk had meant.

"Fiora is Dunban's sister," Reyn answered.

Sharla gasped in surprise. "I didn't know!"

"Pardon me for asking," Melia said. "But is this Fiora important to Shulk?"

"Important?" Reyn repeated. "She's more than important! She's the reason we're out here!"

Sharla just faced palmed. "I don't think that's what she meant."

"It's alright," Melia said. "The answer is actually quite obvious from Shulk's behavior. Anyways," she turned to leave. "I'm going to go talk to Andrew."

"How are you going to do that?" Reyn asked. "No one in the capitol has seen him."

"I have a fairly good idea of where he will be," Melia smiled and then left.

…

I was taking a shower in the guest room while listening to "Time's End" through a portable speaker that I had kept in my backpack. I had pulled it from the Timeless Void and pieced it back together. I stood in the shower and let the warm water wash over me, as though I were standing in the rain.

I couldn't face the others. It was my fault that Sorean was dead. I wasn't strong enough to save him. I wasn't strong enough to save my world. I couldn't save anyone. There was no way I could talk to Shulk and the others after that battle. Especially Melia. She probably hated me. I slammed my fist against the bathroom wall, cursing both my seemingly immortal body and myself.

"What did I think I could accomplish," I thought out loud. "I'm no hero. Not like Shulk and the others. I'm not even human anymore. I'm a monster. I destroyed my world…and I failed to save the person who welcomed me to this world…."

" _Please…will you…watch over Melia…in my stead…?"_

The Emperor's final wish echoed in my head.

" _I…do not ask…you…to replace me…but…there will be times…when my daughter will feel lost…please…guide her heart…"_

"Emperor…how am I supposed to do that…when your daughter probably harbors no pleasant thoughts of me…?"

Maybe I should've just gone back into the Timeless Void. I didn't belong here. I didn't belong anywhere.

I then heard a ringing sound on the intercom panel that was near the shower. Someone was ringing the doorbell. I pressed the button to respond and spoke.

"Whoever it is, I'm not in the best of moods right now. Please leave."

Then a female voice replied.

"Andrew, please, it's Melia."

…

"Why are you here…?" I asked dryly.

"Andrew, please let me in. I want to talk to you."

I didn't understand…wasn't she mad…?

"I promise I'm not mad at you."

…

"Are you sure…?" I asked her, not really sure myself.

"I swear as the princess of the High Entia."

I took a few seconds to think about it. Then pressed a button on the intercom to unlock the door.

"I'll be with you in a second," I said, and prepared to get out of the shower.

…

Melia heard some very somber and sorrowful music coming from Andrew's bathroom. It was full of violins, pianos, and choir chants. It sounded like a very sad tune.

" _Oh Andrew…"_ Melia said thought. _"How much longer will you torment yourself like this…?"_

She sat on the bed that was in the room. Immediately the strong and sweet sent that Andrew carried with him flooded her nose. She found it surprisingly pleasant. Melia took a look around the room where the mysterious boy had stayed. It was very neat and tidy. But then again that was to be expected, since Andrew didn't have a lot of belonging with him. However, she did notice a strange black bag sitting by the nightstand. It looked like to be some sort of backpack. Melia was tempted to see what other strange items from Andrew's world was in there.

" _No,"_ she told herself. _"I shouldn't. That would be impolite."_

She suddenly heard the music stopped and the bathroom door opened. She turned to look at Andrew, and what she saw make her face go a deep red. Andrew had put on a fresh new pair of jeans with a belt, was walking bear foot, and had not shirt on. His air was wet and uncombed, but somehow it looked nice like that.

"Oh my…" she said out loud, immediately covering her mouth after she said that. Andrew's body was very well toned. It wasn't as bulky as Reyn's build, but it had some nice ridges. She hadn't noticed all of his features underneath all the clothes that he wore.

She suddenly noticed that Andrew's face had turned a little red too. "S-sorry…I…didn't want to keep you waiting…so I kinda got out in a hurry…"

"N-no…it's…it's quite alright," Melia stammered, trying to keep herself composed. "I…I think you look…very strong…" _"What am I saying?!"_ Melia yelled at herself in embarrassment.

Andrew's red faced turned a deeper shade of red. "U-umm…thank you…" Andrew said very shyly. "But…I don't really feel like it right now…"

Melia cursed herself for saying something so insensitive. "Well…if it makes you feel any better…I think you are…after watching you fight, I think you are incredibly strong."

Andrew gave a weak smile in response to that. "Melia…" he said. "Are…are you afraid of me…?"

Melia gave a puzzled look at Andrew. "What do you mean?"

"Look at me…I should be dead…and the Emperor…your father…I…I stole his life from him…"

Hearing this, Melia was about to cry again. She did not want to see Andrew like this. Seeing him sad made her sad.

"You asked me if I could use my regenitive abilities to save your father…but…the truth is…I didn't know how to…or if I even could…and…I…figured you were mad at me…that I couldn't save your father…"

Melia shook her head. "I could never be angry at you, Andrew. It's not your fault that my father is gone. The one to blame is Metal Face. You did everything you could to protect my father. You're as brave and selfless as Shulk, if not more. There was not any way you could have known that you would survive the way you did." Melia stood up and walked towards Andrew. "You were to first person to have stood up all on your own and face dangers that you were unfamiliar with just save someone whom you barely knew. You placed yourself in the way of a fatal blow to protect both my father and I. And to be honest…"

All of a sudden, Melia had wrapped her arms around Andrew in a tight hug. Andrew face turned the brightest shade of red when this happened. He was certainly not expecting this. "Melia…?"

"I'm glad that you're still here," Melia said weakly, desperately trying to fight the tears. "Though I am still a little sad over the death of my father, I have decided to move on. However, if you were to fall on Prison Island…I would have been truly devastated…" She pressed the side of her head into Andrew's chest. She hadn't realized how much taller he was than her until now. "I have never met anyone like you. Being able to follow your heart like you do…I am rather envious of that."

Andrew slowly returned the hug as she placed his hands on her silver hair and gently stroked it. It felt very silky and smooth. He loved the feel of it. Melia felt her face blush even more as she felt the boy's strong but gentle fingers glide through her hair. Her face blushed madly and the smile on her face grew. The wings on her head fluttered in happiness, and her heart raced. She could hear a strange pulsing sound from Andrew's chest. It wasn't a heartbeat; she knew that Andrew didn't have one. Therefore Melia assumed that this sound was coming from the strange orb in his chest. But she didn't care that he didn't have a normal heart. Melia just closed her eyes and concentrated on the sound of Andrew's life force. It was the most beautiful sound in the world. She felt like she could fall asleep just by listening to it.

"I…" Melia began, rather shyly. "I want to know more about you…" She tightened her grip on Andrew, in fear that if she let go, he would disappear. "I am not afraid of you. I am not mad at you. But I do worry for you. Please…for my sake…do not torture yourself any further. I do not wish to see you upset. It does not suite you. You are not a monster. And you never will be. You are Andrew. Nothing more. Nothing less."

Melia then stood on her toes and kissed Andrew's cheek. Both Andrew and Melia's face turned a bright crimson as they looked back at each other. Melia couldn't believe she just did that. Andrew was viciously trying to process what had just happened. He stared into her deep sapphire eyes, and she stared back into his deep emerald eyes.

"U-um…I…" Melia stammered in embarrassment.

"Thank you." Andrew said with a shy smile, touching the cheek where Melia's soft and gentle lips had touched. "I needed that."

Melia smiled sweetly and then headed towards the door. "Shall we go back to the others?"

"Sure," Andrew replied. "Just let me make myself presentable first."

Melia chuckled a little bit at that. Andrew snapped his fingers and a new black tee shirt that said, "My voice gives me supper strength!" appeared from one of Andrew's vortexes. Andrew then slipped on the shirt and then his jacket, which he had mended with his powers, conjured up a new pair of socks, and then slipped on his shoes. Andrew then turned and followed Melia out the door.

"There is one thing I need to ask," Melia addressed Andrew as they walked down the hallway of guest rooms and out into the capital. "Are you…immortal…?"

Andrew was silent for a few moments before he answered. "I don't know. The girl that was piloting Nemesis told me that I couldn't die a mortal's death."

"She told you this? When?"

"During the battle. She spoke to me in my mind. I have absolutely no idea how that's possible. But I think what she meant was that I can't die in the same way that normal people can. She wasn't really certain on weather or not I was immortal. Zanza seemed to have some idea about what had happened to me, but didn't really seem to care."

"Shulk said the girl inside that Mechon was his friend that was killed in Colony 9."

"Yeah, I picked up on that too. Fiora was her name, right?"

Melia nodded. "Shulk and Reyn said that she didn't recognize them."

"Probably amnesia," Andrew said. "That's possible when you're brought back from the brink of death. Although…"

"Although what…?"

"If Fiora really does have amnesia, then why did she know about Zanza and the Monodo?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"When Nemesis first showed up, she didn't attack. She was trying to talk to Zanza through telepathy just before he died. And somehow I was able to hear them with my mind. And it wasn't just that, she clearly had no intention of fighting us. She was completely different from Metal Face. The question is why. Up until now, at least according to Shulk, every faced Mechon that he and the others faced against were hell bent on wiping out all Homs. But Nemesis was different. I can't quite put my finger on this but…"

"What..?"

"Not only does she possibly hold the answer to what this power I have actually is, but there may be something about this fight she knows that we don't."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that there's probably more than meets the eye to our fight against the Mechon."

…

As Melia and I headed back to the guest room where the others were, we ran into Dunban and Shulk. Apparently Dunban needed some time to think just like me. Seeing his sister in such a strange state. Shulk had gone to look for him and they had a little heart to heart, just like Melia and I did. They then came to the conclusion that they would search for Fiora and try to help her remember who she was.

"Hey look! They're back!" Reyn said with a smile on his face.

"Is Andy the not Hom Hom better?" Riki asked me.

"Heh, yeah, I'm good, Rik. Mel had to talk some sense into me, but I feel a lot better now."

"Good to hear," Reyn said with a smile of approval.

"Dunban, Shulk?" Sharla asked. "Have you gathered your thoughts?"

"Yes," Dunban replied. "Sorry to be a nuisance."

"Same here," Shulk added. "All thanks to Dunban."

"Good," Sharla said.

Just then the door behind us opened. We all turned to see an imperial guard enter.

"Forgive me," he said humbly. "His Highness Kalian summons you."

"You think something happened?" Shulk asked me.

"Dunno," I replied. "Might as well go see what he wants."

AN: So yeah, here we have an intense battle against Metal Face and a heart-warming moment between Andrew and Melia. THE FEELS! Stay tuned for the next chapter!


	7. Chapter 5-Next Stop: Valak Mountain

AN: ON WITH THE STORY!

Chapter Five-Next Stop: Valak Mountain

 _Onwards, my friends._

 _Ever onwards._

"I apologize for calling you at such short notice," Kalian said humbly as we entered the Audience Chamber.

"Hey, no worries," I said with a smile. "So, what's up? Something you need?"

"There is," he replied. "But first I must apologize to Shulk and his fellow Homs." Kalian then turned to Shulk. "Please, forgive our hubris."

"Eh?" Shulk was a little confused.

"Brother?" Melia seemed to have the same thoughts.

"We High Entia were arrogant enough to idly sit behind our defenses, safe in the knowledge that Mechonis lies a great distance from our land," Kalian said with great remorse. "And we were wrong. Our decision to ignore the Mechon assault on your homeland was wrong."

"Your Highness," said Shulk. "Does this mean…?"

"Yes, Shulk," the young prince replied. "We will face the dangers ahead, together."

"Awesome!" I said with a fist pump. "Mechon beware!"

"Brother…" Melia said with a smile on her face.

"Which leads me to my request," Kalian continued. "After setting eyes on a group consisting of Homs, Nopon, High Entia, and especially a member of a different species from another dimension, I realized an allied army must be formed. I ask that you act as ambassadors for the assembly of this force."

I whistled at the sound of that. "Whoa, that's…jeesh, that's a pretty big deal." I wasn't really sure I was cut out for that. I mean, this wasn't just military tactics we were talking about here, this was also some heavy political stuff too. And needless to say, I wasn't really well versed in either of those.

Shulk apparently had the same thoughts too. He was silent; the look on his face showed surprise and worry.

"Tell me your thoughts, Shulk," Kalian said to the Monodo boy.

"I…" he began. "I need some time…before I make a decision…" He then turned to leave. The others gave Kalian an apologetic look and then followed Shulk.

"Does Shulk not wish to aid us in our mission?" Kalian asked the both of us, a little confused.

"I do not believe that to be true," his younger sister answered.

"Then why?"

"Let's just say that Shulk's got someone else on his mind right now," I told Kalian.

…

"That wasn't like you, Shulk," Sharla said to her companion, a little surprised at his hesitation.

The group had all gone back to the guest dinning room.

"I'm sorry," apologized the wielder of the Monodo.

"It's Fiora," Reyn deduced. "That's why you're hesitating."

"Yeah."

"Knew it," Reyn crossed his arms. "You wouldn't think twice otherwise."

It was true. Up until now, Shulk was filled with the undying desire to avenge Fiora by completely destroying Metal Face and the Mechon army. But now that he had learned Fiora still lived, his flame for revenge had died. He now realized that he almost let it consume him, for he had struck a blow against the faced Mechon that Fiora was piloting. What if he had ended up hitting her body? Now that the Monodo could harm a person, Shulk realized that if things had gone differently, he might have killed her. And that thought was a painful burden for him.

"I…I just don't know." Shulk wasn't really sure which course of action he should take. Of course he still did want to help the people on Bionis defeat the Mechon. Desire for revenge or no, they were still a big threat. But Shulk also wanted to search for Fiora in hopes of getting her back. He knew this was a bit of a selfish thought, but if Shulk got caught up with this ambassador position, there was a good chance he might not be able to see her again.

"Take my advice," a male voice with an accent that one person in the entire world had. "Don't just stand around here twiddling your thumbs."

Everyone turned to see Melia and Andrew entering the room.

"If there's someone or something out there that you want to take back, then you go out there and get it. Or in this case, her. So go out there and get her, Shulk."

Shulk wasn't surprised by Andrew's words. In the short time that he knew him, this sounded like something he would say. But what did surprise Shulk was that Melia didn't object to his words.

"Andrew…Melia…I…" Shulk tried to explain himself to them but the words were failing him.

"Listen to his words, Shulk," Melia input. "I used to believe my father did not love me…until the day he died."

Shulk's face drew a pained expression as she said this. The impact of Sorean's death would not diminish anytime soon.

"If you do not grasp the importance of loved ones until after they are gone…" she continued. "That is simply too late."

"Nothing comes from waiting for too long," Andrew added. "There's a saying in my world. 'If you chase after two rabbits, you won't catch either.' What that means, if you try to do two important things at once, you won't succeed in either of them. And trust me, that's an experience I am all to familiar with."

Shulk took some time to think about what the two had said. "You're right," he replied after a few seconds. "I've made up my mind. I'm going to get Fiora back!"

"You don't have to do this," Dunban offered. He didn't want Shulk to exhaust himself anymore than he already had. "I'll go and look for her myself. The burden should be mine."

"No," Shulk said back. "I want her back as much as you."

"Leave the ambassador stuff to me, Shulk," Reyn said with a smile on his face. "I'll probably make a mess of it, but we're a team. You can count on me."

"Hate to steal your thunder, Reyn," Andrew quickly jumped in. "But I think that stuff's more up Mel's alley."

"Indeed," Melia agreed with the interdimensional boy. "I am of both High Entia and Homs blood. I am the crown princess, and of mixed heritage. Thus, I am best suited to carry out this task."

"But," Shulk started to realize what this meant. "That means…"

"Yes," she finished for Shulk. "I will remain here. This is where we say goodbye." Melia had a bit of a sad look on her face as she said this.

"Is that what you really want?" Sharla asked.

"Yes," Melia replied. "But promise me when you find her, you'll come back. I'll be waiting here for you."

"I don't know what to say…" Shulk said, dumbfounded. "Thank you."

"Andrew, what about you?" Dunban asked.

"As much as I would like go with you, I think I'd better stay here," Andrew answered. "If I don't look after Mel like the Emperor asked me to with his last breath, I'll never hear the end of it from his ghost."

"Oi, wait a second!" Reyn interjected. "What about getting those answers about yourself?" Andrew had explained what Nemesis and Zanza had said to him earlier while they were on their way to see Kalian.

"Yeah, I know," Andrew replied. "I'd still like to get them. But the promise I made to Sorean comes first. So I really hate to pile this on top of you, but if you come across anything that you think might help me, please let me know, okay?"

"Absolutely," Shulk said.

…

Melia and I saw everyone to the entrance of the city. It was sad to say goodbye to my new friends, but I knew that in my heart, metaphorically speaking, I would see them again someday.

"It's probably a good idea if I go and tell Kalian myself," Shulk offered as he turned to face us one last time.

"I am sure he already understands," Melia replied.

"Yeah, besides," I added. "The minsters are probably giving him all kinds of hell right now. We shouldn't bother him unless we need to."

Everyone got a good laugh out of that.

"Then this is goodbye," Shulk said sadly.

"Well," I started to correct him. "I wouldn't exactly say that. 'Goodbye,' means that we're never gonna see you again. I'd say this is more of a time where people would say 'see ya 'round' instead." I said this as I extended my fist outward. Shulk smiled and responded by bumping my fist with his.

"Alright," he said. "See ya 'round."

"You bet," I replied.

"Come back as soon as you can," Melia said to all of them. "We are in great need of your help."

"Got it," Shulk replied with a reassuring smile.

"Go and kick some scrap metal for us, 'kay?" I said to the group.

"You got it, kid!" Reyn said enthusiastically.

"Kid?!" I exclaimed. "FYI, I'm twenty-one years old."

Melia looked at me in surprise. "You're an adult?!"

Everyone else looked the same.

"I have to say, Andrew," Dunban said. "You hardly look your age."

"Riki has forty years and is dadapon," Riki input. "Why friends surprised at Andy's age?"

"Cause they weren't expecting it," I said. "Which is fine, I get that kind of response all the time."

"Well, at least we can count on you to keep safe and out of trouble," Shulk said.

"Yeah, she does have a mischievous side," Reyn said.

"Oi!" The High Entia prison exclaimed with a huffy expression on her face.

I couldn't help but laugh at her reaction. Then she turned an intense glare at me, and I immediately shut up.

"Sorry…" I said.

"You two play nice now," Sharla joked as she and the others turned to leave.

My eyes widened and my face flushed red. I turned to look at Melia and she turned to me, having the same look on her face as I did.

"U-um…I…we…" I stammered.

"A-Andrew and I are merely…" Melia tried to protest.

"Yeah, yeah," Sharla waved us off. "I saw how you were looking at him on Prison Island."

Melia's face turned an even brighter red. Mine did too as I thought back to my room in Alcamoth when Melia had wrapped herself around me in an extremely tight hug. I remembered her soft gentle lips on my cheek as she kissed it. It felt so nice. I secretly wished it would happen again.

"Just on your way out I see," a familiar voice behind us called out.

We all turned around to see Kalian and three imperial guards headed towards us.

"It's now what-" Melia started to say but I stopped her.

"Shulk?" I signaled the blonde.

"I'm sorry, Your Highness," Shulk said apologetically. "About your offer…we must…humbly decline…"

"I see," Kalian sighed. "Very well. Let us hope my sister does not shed too many tears."

"I stay because I must, brother!" Melia protested.

"Um, actually," I said, noticing something that caught my eye. "I don't think that's what he's talking about, Mel."

Everyone looked to where I was pointing. What we saw was Melia's imperial outfit, complete with mask and all, walking towards us. Well, not the outfit itself but someone was obviously wearing it. C'mon, how can clothing move by itself?

…

Well, I guess if it were a ghost it would be possible.

"There's…two Melias? Reyn exclaimed, completely confused at what he was seeing.

"Reyn wrong," Riki corrected. "This Melly smell different."

"A surrogate?" I asked, quite surprised myself. I definitely was not expecting this.

"Yes," Kalian answered me. We need Melia to learn more of the lands of Bionis. But she is still bound to handle public matters. Hence, another Melia."

"Kalian…" Melia said awestruck.

"Do the ministries know about this?" I asked Kalian.

"I proposed the idea to them," Kalian. "And they agreed. It did take quite the persuasion though."

"And the stand-in?" I asked, turning to the masked girl. "Is she fine with this?"

"I volunteered," she replied. "I am honored to serve Her Majesty in her stead."

I shrugged. "Well, as long as your cool with it, then I guess it's fine."

"Your Highness, Crown Princess," Kalian addressed his younger sister. "As your humble subject, I formally request the following."

"Speak," Melia commanded.

"I request that you accompany Shulk in his quest to find the Mechon that attacked Alcamoth. And that you take Andrew with you as your body guard."

Okay, now I was really dumbfounded. "W-wait a second what?"

"Are you sure…?" Melia asked her brother.

"Do you object?" Kalian turned to me.

"Well…no, but…man, this is…really unexpected." I turned to the others. "Uh…you guys okay with me tagging along?"

"Are you kidding?!" Reyn said excitedly. "With you on our team we'll be trashing Mechon left and right!"

"Andy the not Hom Hom smash bang Mechon enemies!" Riki exclaimed, happily bouncing up and down.

"You're a welcome addition with your unique abilities," Dunban said. "And your charismatic personality will greatly help our morale."

"Indeed. Melia's use of Ether will also be extremely useful," Sharla added. "Now I won't be the only one applying medical treatments to everyone."

"Kalian wouldn't ask you if he did trust you," Shulk said. "And besides, you're our friend. The more the merrier!"

I couldn't help but smile widely at their approval. I was going to go on an adventure! I've always had fantasied about stuff like this when I was a kid, and now it was happening for real!

"Alrighty then!" I turned to Kalian and saluted him like a soldier. "Imperial bodyguard, Andrew Hindle, reporting for duty!"

Kalian smiled and chuckled a little at my enthusiasm. "I am pleased with your acceptance and charisma." He then turned to Shulk. "Shulk, I am aware of everything. Go forth and follow your heart. There will come a day when we need you, but it is not today."

"Your Highness," Shulk replied with a smile of gratitude. "That means a lot to me."

"That is one cool prince," Reyn said, admiring Kalian's flexibility.

"If only _someone_ had his sensitivity," Sharla deadpanned.

"Sensitivity?" Reyn repeated with a bit of a hurt look on his face. "I-I'm sensitive…"

I burst out laughing.

"Oi! What are you laughing at?"

"The jury's out on that one apparently," Sharla said, smiling at my reaction. She then walked over to Melia and I. "Well, looks like the two of you won't be doing anything boring as long as you're with us."

Melia and I looked at each other with smiles on our faces. "Lookin' forward to it," I said.

"We have recently received a report that the silver faced Mechon, the one you call Nemesis, fled to Galahad Fortress, the Mechon stronghold as Sword Valley," Kalian explained to us. "Metal Face has been sighted there as well."

"Nice!" I exclaimed. "That guy did an extremely good job of getting the No. 1 spot on my hit list. A little vengeance for the Emperor would be nice too."

"It will be a treacherous path," the prince continued. "Andrew, Shulk, my sister is in your hands."

"Thank you, Kalian," Shulk said.

"You can count on us," I added. "We'll keep her safe. I promise."

"Regent," Melia spoke up. "I accept your request. Andrew and I shall return victorious with Shulk."

"I am most pleased."

"Leaving without me?" A gentle voice spoke up from nowhere.

We all turned to the left to see Alvis headed towards us. He was carrying a large sword with a curved blade on his back.

"Hey Alvis," I said with a smile.

"Do you want to come?" Shulk asked.

"To reach Galahad Fortress, you will need to travel through Valak Mountain, on the right arm of the Bionis."

I face palmed. "Oh no."

"What's wrong?" Melia asked me.

"The place that Alvis is talking about is the coldest region on the Bionis," I explained. "And I fucking hate the cold."

"Indeed," Alvis confirmed. "The snow-covered mountains are fraught with danger. Those unfamiliar to them risk never coming back."

"Of course," Kalian added. "You would be familiar with that region."

"Then there's no point in wasting time," Dunban spoke up.

"Leave the allied force to me," the young prince said. "I am not known for my diplomacy but call it pride. I shall succeed."

"Godspeed, Kalian," I said, wishing him luck.

"We'll join you as soon as we can," Shulk added.

"I look forward to the day," replied Kalian. "Heroes of Bionis! Make us proud!"

Then Kalian and his men bowed down before us. "Heroes," huh? I liked the sound of that.

"You see?" Reyn spoke up. "Now we're getting some respect."

"We're back to this again, are we?" Sharla said to the muscle head with a teasing smile.

"See you soon, Kalian," Shulk bid the prince farewell.

"Okay," I said. "First thing's first. I gotta head back to my room and back my stuff for the journey. You guys go a head and wait for me at the transporter outside of the city."

"Don't take too long," Melia said to me.

"I won't. Just give me five minutes, and I'll be back in a flash before you can even say, 'Whoa!'"

"Why would we say that?" Reyn asked.

"You'll find out," I gave a teasing smile and rushed back to my room.

…

"Whoa!" Reyn exclaimed as I jumped through what I like to call a Time Gate. It was the same ability that I used when I was about to take a late night dip in the Eryth Sea. I had also used it to fast travel back to my room when I was running away from Prison Island. I just thought about being alone, and then I thought about my room in Alcamoth and how badly I wanted to go there fast, and boom, there I was.

"Told ya," I said.

"Didn't you use that same ability to avoid falling into the sea?" Dunban asked me.

"Damn, you remembered that," I joked. "Yeah, that's the one. I call it the Time Gate. I think I've figured out how it works. It allows me to basically warp anywhere in the world. I just have to think about where I go and bam."

"That is quite impressive," Alvis stated.

"Andy is cool for Heropon sidekick," Riki said flapping his paws around.

"Could you use that to get us to Valak Mountain?" Sharla asked.

"Unfortunately, no," I replied. "I think it only works if I've been to the place in mind before and I have a mental picture of what it looks like. Also, it requires concentration, so I don't think I can do long distances in the middle of a battle. Short distances, yeah, like warping behind the enemy for a sneak attack, that I can do, but getting you guys back to your hometowns in the blink of an eye? No dice."

"Well, no man is without his limits," Melia said. "Still though, that is a very useful ability you have there."

"Yes, a very welcome aid in battle," Dunban complimented.

"Welcome to the team, man!" Reyn said, raising his hand.

"Good to be here," I said back with a smile, giving him a high five.

"Are you all set?" Shulk asked me.

"Yup," I said, adjusting the straps of my black backpack on my back that I had taken with me. "I also bought us some purified water from the Eryth Sea. I've still got a physical brain, so I'd like to keep that hydrated. And as for the rest of you guys, I know you'll be needing it."

"Thanks," Shulk said.

"Alright then," Alvis spoke up. "We will need to traverse Sword Valley if we wish to reach Galahad Fortress."

"And in order to get to there we have to go through winter friggin' wonderland," I said, dreading the climate on Valak Mountain.

"If Colony 6 were in better shape, we could have taken a pod from there," Sharla input. "How are we getting to the valley again?"

"First," Alvis explained. "We will take the path from the Bionis' right arm, straight through Valak Mountain. Sword Valley is where the arm meets the Mechonis' sword."

"So that's our route," Dunban acknowledged.

"As I said earlier," the grey haired guy continued, "it is a snow-covered mountain range, and you should expect a tough climb."

I just groaned at hearing that.

"Are we all ready?" Alvis asked us one last time.

"Ready as we'll ever be!" Reyn exclaimed all pumped up.

Everyone nodded in response, while I gave the thumbs up.

"Quite," Alvis replied with a smile. He then turned towards some kind of vehicle that was capable of flight. It wasn't a Havre, but it did have a similar design. "Fist, we will head through Makna Forest. This short-range pod will be our transport. All aboard people."

…

The flight to Makna Forest was about half an hour and was a fairly comfortable flight. I spent most of the flight asleep while listening to the music on my iPod. I couldn't sleep a wink last night with all of those raging thoughts in my head. Then again, my body really didn't need sleep, but it was still nice to get some shuteye. I think I earned it.

Sharla had to shake me awake when we got to Makna Forest. "Come on you sleeping beauties," she teased me.

Wait. "Sleeping beauties?" I asked myself. I then felt that my left shoulder was warmer then the rest of my body. I turned to see what the cause was, and then my face blushed a bright red for the umpteenth time. Melia had fallen fast asleep next to me, using my left shoulder as a pillow. I guess she really didn't get a lot of sleep either. I smiled shyly at the site. She looked really cute when she was asleep. I lightly shook her awake with my shoulder. "Hey, Mel. We're here."

Melia made a bit of a sleepy groan and slowly opened her eyes. When she saw me, she smiled a bit, but then realized where her head was resting. Her face immediately lit up a bright red, and she jerked her head straight off my shoulder. "Oh!" she exclaimed. "I…I am sorry…"

"Hey, relax," I reassured her. "It's fine. You must've have been really tired."

She nodded her head. "Indeed, I was."

"Oi! You two!" Reyn called back to us. "Are you coming or not?"

"Yeah, hang on, we're coming," I called back, helping Melia up.

When the two of us stepped outside, we were greeted by a very humid temperature, and a lot of trees and grass. So this was Makna Forest.

"Ah, now this feels nice!" I said happily as I stretched my body. "I could get used to a place like this."

"Andy like Makna?" Riki asked me with a curious face?

"With this kind of weather year round? Hell yeah. If I wanted to, I could probably live here."

"Andy should come and visit Riki's home in Frontier Village!" Riki offered bouncing up and down. "Visit Riki's wifeypon Oka and littlepon too!"

Makna forest was the Nopon's native terrain. Though a lot of them had settled in Colonies 9 and 6, this is where they were originally from. Frontier Village was located inside a giant tree somewhere deep within the forest. It was there that the team first met Riki. Same with Melia too, when Yumea had sent the Leone Telethia to kill her. Shulk and the other's showed up to give her a hand, and with Riki's help, Shulk offered to help Melia take down the Leone Telethia.

I smiled at Riki's offer. "One of these days, I think I'd like to do that." I could just imagine a whole bunch of Nopon children bouncing around at my feet and jumping up on me, tackling me to the ground. The Nopon were very found of Homs and High Entia. I read that Homs children and Nopon children always have fun when they played together. I could think of a few friends back home that would love to play around with the Nopon. Probably not Leo. He would've thought they were wired. And I would've just told him to "get friggin' used to it." Besides, I thought they were cute. Every time Riki spoke it just put a smile on my face.

"From here," Alvis spoke, bringing my attention back to reality. "We will take this path straight to Valak Mountain."

I groaned once again.

"You must really not like cold climates," Dunban noted my behavior.

"You don't know the half of it," I simply replied. "Well, on the bright side, my body won't allow me to get frostbite, so that's good."

"Alright," Reyn said. "Might as well get this trek over with. You all set, Shulk?"

"Good to go," Shulk replied.

Alvis nodded. "Then let us be on our way."

And with that, we made our way towards Valak Mountain.

…

Face Nemesis was undergoing repairs in the Face hanger at Galahad Fortress. The damage it had sustained from the Monodo was quite serious. Nothing that a quick maintenance couldn't fix.

"Zanza is not dead," girl in white and gold Mechon armor said aloud. This girl was Nemesis' pilot. Though the voice that spoke was not the girl's but someone else that was using her body. "I feel it," she continued. "Our tragedy unfolds once again."

"Lady Meyneth," another female voice spoke over the intercom. "Does that mean…?"

"Indeed," the voice belonging to the one named Meyneth replied grimly. "I do not doubt that Egil, too, is aware." She was thinking back to when Zanza had unleashed the true power of the Monodo, giving it the power to cut down life on Bionis, and thus, Faces. "However, why free the Monodo?" Meyneth wondered out loud. "Zanza must realize it is now a double-edged sword." Indeed it was strange. Zanza was taking a bit of a risk. "And what reason could he have for choosing the boy?" Her thoughts then focused on the young boy known as Shulk, who wielded Monodo. "And then there's that mysterious boy who cannot die," Meyneth then brought her thoughts to the boy in the blue jacket. "Who is he? I did not sense any ether in his body. And that power…how did he come across it. And why does he fight alongside the inhabitants of Bionis?"

Meyneth then felt something inside her flutter and tighten around her heart. _"What is this?"_ she asked herself, surprised by this sudden feeling. _"I am…experiencing feelings for the boy?_

"Lady Meyneth…" the other woman spoke up, worried about what her mistress was thinking.

"Vanea," Meyneth replied. "Your swift repairs are appreciated."

"Thank you," the woman named Vanea said back.

Meyneth took a few seconds to gather her thoughts. "I wish to see that boy again," she said aloud. "To meet the one who wields the Monodo."

"The boy?" Vanea asked, unsure of what Meyneth was saying. "But, my Lady, that is not-"

"Is Egil aware of my reawakening?" Meyneth interrupted Vanea's protest.

"He is not," replied Vanea. "As my Lady wished, he knows nothing."

"Then," Meyneth added. "There is no need to worry." She then closed Nemesis' cockpit and started the engines. "I shall meet the boy. Besides, the Monodo will draw him to me. And that other boy will no doubt have some questions and need answering." She then took off into the sunset, leaving Galahad Fortress behind, and flew towards the Bionis.

Unbeknownst to Meyneth, Metal Face was watching her from afar with his arms folded across his chest..

"Flying off without me, huh?" he said, curious as to what Nemesis' pilot was up to. "I know you from somewhere." The face of the girl controlling the silver faced was strongly familiar to him, but it had been a long time. Metal Face thought for a few seconds, and then it suddenly came to him. "Of course!" he exclaimed with a wicked grin. "I remember you. You're Dunban's little sister!"

Metal Face then transformed into jet mode, and took off after Nemesis, knowing that following her would eventually lead him to Dunban and the Monodo brat.

…

Reyn was folding his arms in an attempt to shield himself from the freezing temperature. Alvis wasn't kidding when he said this was the coldest region on the Bionis.

"I could go for a hot cup of Dickson's homebrew right about now," Reyn said. "We're not built for this cold."

Dickson was basically like a Shulk's father. Fourteen years ago in this world Shulk's parents died from unknown circumstances while they were on some sort of expedition. Shulk was with them, but he was just a kid at the time, so he really didn't remember it well. Dickson was part of the excavation too, but he had fallen behind because he got lost in the middle of a blizzard. When he caught up with the team, he found them all dead in some sort of ruins. Only Shulk was still alive and he was fast asleep. Dickson had also found the Monodo in those same ruins and brought both Shulk and the Monodo back to Colony 9. From there Dickson had raised Shulk like a father.

Now that I thought about it, since this was the only place where it snows on Bionis, this was the only place where someone could've gotten lost in a blizzard. So did that mean that Shulk and the Monodo came from Valak Mountain?

"It is to be expected," Alvis explained. "This climate is as different from your home as it gets. It only snows this high up on the Bionis."

"Brrr," Riki shivered. "Riki hate cold!"

"That makes two of us," I agreed with the Heropon, folding my arms across myself. Melia apparently felt the same, because she was doing the same thing. If I had known we were going to go into the arctic, I would've brought my winter jacket. Only problem was, I could only conjure up clothing that was already in the Timeless Void with me prior to when my original body was destroyed. I couldn't create things from scratch. I'm no god after all.

"This can't be nice for Riki," Sharla said kneeling down next to the Nopon. "He's from Makna."

She had a point. Anyone who lived in Makna was probably more prone to frostbite then anyone.

"A little further down is Sword Valley, right?" Shulk asked Alvis.

"Yes," he replied. "But before then, I must show you something."

"Me?" Shulk said pointing to himself.

"You, Shulk," Alvis confirmed. "Andrew too."

"Huh?" Wasn't expecting that. "Why me?"

"You will see soon enough," was all Alvis said in response. He then turned around to face something in the distance. "Do you not see? That tall formation that looks like a tower. Ruins, to be precise."

I look in the same direction and saw what he was talking about. There was indeed some sort of tower in the distance. It looked like a crystal and was giving of an eerie blue glow. Probably Ether.

"Riki see it!" Riki exclaimed. "Bigger than big tree in village!"

"We can rest there," said Alvis. "I'll explained everything then."

"Sounds like a plan," Dunban agreed. "Stay too long out here, and well all freeze to death. Well, besides Andrew of course."

"If anyone turns into a block of ice, let me know," I joked. "But yeah, with the sun getting low, it would be best to find some place relatively untouched by the snow to set camp."

"Okay, but how to we get to that tower?" Reyn asked. "It can't be as simple as walking straight down the mountain."

"Maybe we should ask someone who has been here before," Melia said as she pointed a little to her left. There was a small group of Nopon in the direction she was looking. They looked like they were a group of merchants and archeologists.

"It can't hurt," I said and started towards the Nopon group. "Excuse me!"

The Nopon turned to face me. "Hom Hom in mountain?" one of them asked with curiosity in his voice. "Strange to see. Is this Hom Hom's first time on Valak?"

I wasn't going to tell him that I wasn't a Homs. That probably would've given him a headache. "Yes, my friends and I are looking to get to that tower in the distance and then to Sword Valley. I don't suppose you would know the best route?"

The Nopon jumped up and down excitedly. "Daykes is Nopon researcher! Been traveling Bionis for one year! Map places well!"

I smiled at Daykes enthusiasm. "Then you know a way?"

"Best way!" Daykes said happily. "Here's how to get to really tall tower. Go all the way to bottom of this hill to get to Bangar Snowfield. Hollow Bone there is like tunnel that leads to lower level. Daykes' colleagues near exit of Hollow Bone, so head there first!"

"Great, thanks!" I said with a smile.

"Daykes is happy to help!" Daykes beamed. "But why does Hom Hom want to go to Sword Valley? That Mechon place."

I cracked my knuckles. "My friends and I have a score to settle with our 'buddies' on Mechonis."

Daykes' eyes widened. "Hom Homs fight Mechon?"

Riki then bounced up next to me. "Hom Homs fight Mechon with Heropon Riki! Hom Homs Riki's sidekicks!"

"Uh, yeah, sure what he said."

Daykes eyes widened. "Ohhhh! Heropon from Makna! Then Daykes sees no reason to not help! Heropon Riki and Hom Homs! Listen well. Left at entrance to tower, downhill path that leads to another tunnel. Tunnel leads to Sword Valley."

"Alrighty," I said.

"Riki thanks Daykes!" Riki exclaimed with a smile.

"Heropon and Hom Homs crash pow Mechon good!" Daykes cheered on for us.

I gave him the thumbs up then Riki and I went back to the others. "Okay I think we've got ourselves a path."

"Excellent Andrew," Alvis complimented. "Everyone, keep your weapons close to you in case we run into trouble."

We all started down the mountain. But I stopped for a few seconds to look behind my back. I had a weird feeling. Kinda like a…seventh sense…? Like I had this very vague but strong feeling that we were being followed. But when I looked around, I saw nothing. Or…wait…I…I could've sworn I saw something dressed in black dash behind a snow bank.

"Andrew?" Dunban asked me, bringing me back to my senses. "Are you alright?"

"Uh…yeah," I said, not really sure about my answer though. "Yeah…eyes are playing tricks on my I guess."

Come nighttime, I was going to be proven that my eyes were working just fine. As well as my "seventh sense."

…

It took us about twenty minutes to hike down to the Bangar Snowfield. Yeah, the temperature was friggin' freezing, but the plus side was that it was mostly downhill. I definitely preferred that over uphill. We did encounter a few monsters, but they weren't anything we couldn't handle. It was a good way to get us all warmed up from the cold. Melia had gotten some inspiration from all my punches and kicks that she was starting to develop her own kicking technique. She was calling it Starlight Kick. It was however a little flimsy, but she was hoping that her kick would get strong enough to where it could bring an enemy down to its knees. I offered to help her strengthen it when we had spare time.

By the sun had just about gone down making the mountain completely dark. The clouds completely covered the sky, so there was no way we could've seen the moon. But as soon as it got dark, the many ice crystals lit up with a yellow glow, sending beams of Ether light into the sky, more than enough to light up the entire mountain.

"I know I said that I absolutely hate the cold," I spoke to the rest of the guys. "But damn, there is no way you can be mad at this sight."

"Yeah," Shulk agreed.

"Definitely makes up for the cold weather here," Reyn added.

"I've always loved the sight of the Eryth Sea at night time," Melia said. "But the lights that the crystals give off are a beauty."

"Hey, Andrew! Alvis!" Sharla called to the both of us. "Is this the Hollow Bone that Nopon researcher was talking about?"

Alvis and I headed over to where Sharla was standing. Sure enough, she had found a tunnel that leads downwards.

"Yes," Alvis confirmed. "This is it."

"Apparently Daykes forgot to tell us that it's completely covered in ice," I noted. "Or that it has a drop off." Hollow Bone just cut off of a cliff. There was another tunnel across the gap but it was a good five feet away. "How the hell are we supposed to get down this thing without falling?"

"Like so," Alvis replied, and then jumped into the tunnel and slid down the ice on his bottom. When he came to the drop off, he got on his feet and jumped to the next tunnel, landing in a forward roll and continued down.

"No way," Reyn bluntly said. "Nuh uh. Not doing that."

"You got a better idea?" I asked the Defense Force soldier.

"As a matter of fact, I do. We go around the tunnel and find another-WAH!" Reyn got interrupted by Sharla shoving him off of his feet, causing him to stumble and fall straightforward into the tunnel.

(Cue 01)

"SHAAAAAARLAAAAAAAAAAA!" Reyn yelled as he slid down, flying off of his chest at the drop off, and then landed back on his chest on the rest of the tunnel.

Sharla then jumped in after him. "LOOK OUT BELOOOOOOOOWWW!"

Riki bounced in after her. "Riki want to ride too! WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

"Race ya!" Shulk said with a huge grin on his face and jumped down the tunnel.

I sighed. "Well, as the saying goes back in my world, 'when in Rome.'" I then went over to Melia and picked her up bridal style.

"Wh-what are you doing?!" she exclaimed with her face red as a rose.

"My job," I replied. "Wouldn't be a good body guard if I let you get hurt on the way down."

She really couldn't argue with that and turned her face away shyly. "I…I suppose."

"Hey Dunban. You comin' with?"

Silence.

I turned to where I thought Dunban was only to see that he was gone.

"Dunban?"

I heard a sliding sound behind me.

"SEE YOU AT THE BOTTOM!" Dunban's voice echoed down the tunnel.

"Oh, dick move, Mr. Hero!" I called after him, and started towards the tunnel.

"Wait!" Melia protested. "You're not going to-"

"Yup! GERONIMOOOOOOOOOOO!"

I jumped down the tunnel the tunnel with Melia screaming at the top of her lungs in my ear.

"OW! Again, not in the ear!"

Once we reached the drop off, I pushed off my feet and leapt in the air.

"WHOOOOOOOOOO!"

I landed right on my butt.

"Ooooooohohohowwww! Ah, freezer burn!"

Melia was freaking out big time. "Are you completely mad?!"

"Probably," I said teasingly. "Come on, don't pretend this isn't fun."

I saw Dunban ahead as we slid rapidly towards the bottom. I then got a crazy awesome idea to get ahead of Dunban, and quite possibly the others. I stood up on my legs and ignited them in dark flames. I then imagined small spinning blades of flames on my heels. The wheels then appeared just as I imagined it.

"Hold on tight," I said to Melia.

Her grip around me tightened as I began to skate down the tunnel as fast as I could go.

"Gangway!" I called out as I whooshed past Dunban. I managed to get a look at Dunban's dumbfounded face just before I lost sight of him.

As I continued to skate down the tunnel with Melia in my arms, we came to a sharp left turn. I dug my left foot into the ground to use as an anchor, and then moved my right leg to my side to balance myself on the curve. We managed to pull off a perfect sharp left bank and went speeding towards the others.

"Beep beep!" I called out to the others as we zoomed past them. "Eaaaaaat myyyyyyy duuuuuuuuust!"

"No fair!" I heard Riki call out behind me. "Andy cheat!"

"All's fair in a race, Rik!" I called back. I then saw that we were heading towards Reyn, who was still sliding down the tunnel, belly first.

"Reyn!" I shouted to him. "C'mon, man, make yourself presentable." I then used Death's Hand to pick him up and place him up right. "That's better."

"No it isn't!" Reyn complained. "Now I'm literally freezing my arse off!"

"Well you could always use your Scrap Driver's shield as a sleigh or a snowboard," I suggested.

Reyn pondered on that for a minute. "That's absolutely mad," he commented. "I like it!" Reyn then proceeded to lie down on his back and unhooked his Scrap Drive. He stood up and opened up the shield on his weapon, doing his best to balance himself on the blade. He stumbled a few times, but after a few seconds he found his balance.

"Hahah! Woooooooo!" Reyn yelled. "Now this is awesome!"

"Told ya!" I said. "Last one to the bottom is a dead Bunniv!" I then increased my speed slightly, letting my velocity carry Melia and I past Reyn.

"Oh no you don't!" Reyn called after me and proceeded to accelerate his speed in an attempt to catch up to me.

"Andrew!" Melia suddenly exclaimed. "Look!"

I looked ahead to what Melia had seen.

Uh oh.

There was another drop off. Good news was it led to another tunnel. The bad news was it was full of dirt and there was a frozen lake out side it.

"OOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHH CRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP!" I stopped the flame blades on my heels to try and brake, but it was no good. We we're going too fast.

"Mel, you may want to hold on to me tightly."

"I already am!"

"Tighter!"

Melia then wrapped her arms a little too tightly around my neck.

"GACK! Not that tight! Too tight! Too tight! Can't breathe!"

"Oh shut up! You don't have any lungs!"

…

"Good point."

We were almost at the drop off.

"Okay, here goes!"

As soon as we got to the edge I jumped off with my feet and soared downwards to the bottom.

"IIIIIIIINNNNNNCOOOOOMIIIIIIIIIING!"

As Melia and I reached the bottom, I wrapped my arms around her body to shield her from the impact. At the last second of impact, I ducked and rolled in mid air so we would land with my back first.

THUD!

It hurt just about as much when crashed into Alcomoth. Melia and I both tumbled a good distance until we rolled to a stop with me lying on my back.

"Ooooooowwwwww. My back…" I complained.

I looked up and saw that Melia was lying on top of me. Her face looked as pale as the snow on Valak and she was shaking pretty badly.

"Mel? You okay?"

Melia then started to chuckle a little.

Then a little more.

Pretty soon she just broke down laughing.

And I joined her in her laughing fit.

"Whooooooo! Haha! Aw, man, that was epic!" I exclaimed.

"Quite," Melia agreed. "But let's not do that again."

"Agreed." I said.

After we both calmed down a bit, I noticed that Melia's face was very close to mine, our noses were inches away from each other. I stared into her eyes, and she stared into mine. We were the first ones to have made it into the tunnel. And right now it was just the two of us. I think we were acting subconsciously, but our faces slowly came closer together, our noses gently brushing past each other, our lips-

Then there was the sound of clapping. Melia and I both turned to the source.

It was Alvis.

Apparently he had gotten here faster than us.

"Good show," he said.

Melia and I instantly got off of each other, our faces turning a bright crimson in embarrassment.

"I…we…we were just…" Melia begain.

"Yeah…um….it was…see…we thought we got here first and-"

BANG!

"OW! What the hell?!"

Reyn's Scrap Driver had wacked me in the back of the head, followed shortly by Reyn himself. He struck me dead in the face with his feet, sending me plummeting back down into the dirt. When I tried to get back up my face was met with a ball of fur. Riki had flown right into my face next.

"Heropon kapow cheater!"

I really should've seen that coming.

Pretty soon everyone had made it down into the tunnel with Dunban being the only one that made a decent landing.

"Now that was fun!" Sharla said happily.

"Indeed," Dunban agreed. "That was quite the sport."

"Um, Andrew?" Shulk asked me. "You okay?"

I wasn't really sure who I was mad at more. Alvis for killing the moment, or Reyn putting foot marks on my face. Maybe both. "I've got freezer burn on my butt, a bruised back, and a splitting headache thanks to Muscles over there. You tell me."

Melia laughed at my attitude. "Oh come now, with your body you're fine."

"Yeah I know," I grunted as I got up. "Just felt like complaining. I'm good though, thanks for asking."

We then heard a high-pitched groaning noise. "Why so noisy? Maki needs sleep. Not sleep for five days."

Judging by the speech pattern it was probably one of Daykes's colleagues. Obviously all the commotion we had made woken the other Nopon archeological team up. We all turned around to see a purple Nopon, Maki apparently he was called, walk sleepily out of a small tent. He turned a groggy and confused gaze at us. "Eh? Hom Homs in tunnel. What doing here in Valak?"

"Don't mind us," Alvis calmly said to Maki.

"Yeah," I added as I brushed the dirt off of myself. "We're just headed for that tower in the distance. And then to Sword Valley tomorrow morning after we get some sleep"

"Ooooohhhh!" Maki exclaimed curiously. "Then Hom Homs take best path! Tower is straight ahead! Can't miss!" Maki then jumped up and down, pointing to the crystal tower that was now very close to us. "Sword Valley in direction left of tower!"

"Heropon Riki thanks fellow Nopon traveler Maki for help!" Riki graciously thanked the Nopon researcher.

Maki was wide awake now. "Heropon from Makna?! Oooooohhhh, Maki is honored! What business does Heropon have with Mechonis?"

Reyn then walked up next to Riki. "Furball and I here are going to crack some metal heads! Same with everyone else here too."

Maki got excited at hearing this. "Heropon, Hom Hom, and Bird Lady go kapow Mechon? Ooooooohhhh, that is good news!"

"Riki beat enemy good!" Riki exclaimed puffing his chest out. "Mechon run away scared and never come back!"

Maki and Riki then shook hands. "Get 'em Heropon!" Maki said. "Good luck Hom Hom and Bird Lady!"

We all smiled at Maki, said good-bye and left.

"I apologize for the commotion my friends have made," Melia said politely to Maki as we left.

"Maki no mind, now that he has met Makna Heropon in flesh!"

"Well, that's good to hear," I said. "Hope you sleep better after this."

"Maki send wishes to Riki and his team through dreams tonight!"

I smiled and then waved as I joined the others.

…

We had finally reached the ruins that Alvis insisted we visit first. Standing in front of us was a door that was carved into the mountain.

"Is this the place?" Dunban asked.

"Yes," Alvis replied.

Melia and I were looking at the inscription on the door. It was written in a strange language that I couldn't read two days ago.

"The letters are worn and difficult to make out," Melia observed. "But it's definitely the language of the High Entia."

"They look just the lettering on Prison Island," Sharla added.

"'Here be the resting place of…'" I tried to read what was written as best as I could "What? What does that last word say?"

"We would probably have a better understanding if we saw what's inside," Dunban said as he started towards the door. "If only we could…"

The door then suddenly opened in front of Dunban.

"…Just walk right in," he finished.

"Well that's convenient," I said. We all then moved to go inside the tower. Inside was just one room with a pedestal in the center. It was dark, but it was slightly less cold inside the ruins than it was outside.

"This place…" Shulk said as he looked around.

"Something up, Shulk?" asked Reyn.

"No…" the blonde answered. "It's just…I feel like I know this place…"

"Déjà vu?" Dunban inquired.

"I'm not sure…" Shulk responded. "But…" There was a moment of silence as he tried to think. "I thought I had it. I can't seem to recall."

The Monodo then suddenly started to glow a dim blue.

"Uh, Shulk" I spoke up. "You okay, man?"

"What?" Shulk snapped out what looked like a trance. "Oh…must be tired. Don't worry, I'm fine."

I figured it had to be more than just that.

"This is Ose Tower," Alvis explained to us. "Built by the High Entia to house and protect the Monodo. The ceremony of seers was conducted here. It is also where the Homs found the Monodo."

"Wait!" Shulk exclaimed. "You mean…!"

"This is where Dickson found you as a kid," I finished for Shulk. "As well as your parents final resting place."

No wonder these ruins were so familiar to Shulk.

…

"So this is where the Monodo was kept?" Shulk wondered aloud as he looked at the pedestal where the Monodo had once rested. "My dad took it from here…"

It was midnight right about now. We had made a fire in the tower to cook some of the dead monsters we had killed. I stored their bodies in the Timeless Void to make things lighter on our loads. It's pretty handy when you can just pull the things you need out of mid air. Melia had started a fire using the ether in the air. There was a high concentration of it in the tower. Made sense, this being the Monodo's resting place and all. Sharla was the one who cooked the food for us. Nobody else here knew how to cook, at least not properly. Least of all me. I only knew how to make mac n' cheese. Still, Sharla was a damn good cook. Even without seasoning, the stuff we ate tasted like it could be in a restaurant. Actually, now that I thought about it, this adventure reminded me of all those little camping trips I went on with my dad when I was still in cub scouts. I had a lot of fun those days.

Right now, every one was ready to hit the sack, getting all snug in their sleeping bags. Alvis had told Shulk and I to stay up for a little while longer. He said there was something he needed to tell us.

"Full circle, huh?" I said as I walked up to Shulk. "Almost seems like fate."

"It does, doesn't it?" Shulk replied. He then turned to Alvis. "Hey, Alvis? Have you always been able to see the future?"

"Yeah," I added. "Kalian told me that you were from a long line of seers. But what exactly does that mean. Did you inherit that ability from birth or something?"

Alvis smiled and walked towards us. "Once, I too came into contact with the Monodo," he said.

Shulk's eyes widened. I whistled. Shulk had told me that Alvis, upon their first encounter, used the Monodo just as well as he did when they were facing off against the Leone Telethia's spawn. "Well, that explains why you can use it as well as Shulk."

"Indeed," Alvis responed. "Those that are to be seers must touch the Monodo. And a chosen few receive our power."

"And your one of those chosen few?" I asked.

"I am," answered Alvis. "That is the ceremony of my family."

"And the ceremony was held right here," Shulk deduced.

"Definitely not the place I would pick to for something like that," I commented.

Alvis started back towards the fire, and we followed.

"Shulk," Alvis addressed the Monodo wilder. "Why do you think we can see the future?"

Shulk took a few seconds to ponder that question. "I…hadn't really thought about it," he finally said. "After I grabbed the Monodo…I just…saw things."

"Your visions are the flow of ether itself," Alvis explained. "Ether is the very source of our world's existence. Where and how much ether there exists now and in the future, can be predicted."

"Umm," I struggled to understand what Alvis was saying. "What does that mean exactly?"

"All living things on Bionis are made up of ether," he started to explain. "Shulk's visions of the future is but one way in which ether can flow at a given point in time. Therefore, in principle, the future of living beings such as us can also be predicted. And there is one thing that makes possible the visualization of those predictions."

"You mean the Monodo," Shulk was quick to figure out what he was getting at.

"Yes," Alvis continued. "The Monodo can disrupt the ether, allowing you to release certain powers. Which means?"

"My visions," Shulk answered. "Under the same principle are there to disrupt the future."

"Okay, now I think I get it," I spoke up. "The Monodo is not only a weapon, but also a tool to counteract the flow of ether on Bionis. Shulk's visions of the future is basically how the ether will flow in due time, and should Shulk use the Monodo to act, he can disrupt the current flow of the ether, and make a new flow, thus changing the future."

Alvis smiled in amusement. "Precisely, Andrew. You catch on well." He then continued with the explanation. "With no one to control the outcome, the future will never change. But what if someone were to disrupt the future? What then?"

"The future would be changed," Shulk answered.

"And a new reality would unfold," I added. "When you think about it, that kind of power sounds like it should belong to…I dunno, a god or something."

"In a sense, yes," Alvis agreed.

"But, wait," Shulk spoke all of a sudden. "Was that how Zanza planned to defeat the Mechonis?"

"Yeah, that doesn't make any sense," I jumped in. "Why would Zanza go to such great lengths, I mean, what exactly did the Mechonis do that Zanza didn't like. What happened all those years ago?"

Alvis gave us a serious look. "Did you two think it was just a myth?"

"Hey, I've only been here for two days so far," I said. "I only know what I've read. Weather or not it's true, I haven't decided."

"Understandable," Alvis nodded. "Shulk?"

"I…" he began. "I used to only believe in what I could see. My home, my friends, the Monodo itself. I knew those things were real."

"But when you took the Monodo in your hand," Alvis continued. "You gained the ability to see that which was not meant to be seen. And Andrew, when you got trapped in the Timeless Void, you gained the power to cross into other dimensions. To go places where, originally, no one had the power to go. Your very existence in this world itself disrupts the ether."

"Uh…is that a bad thing?" I asked.

"That depends on your actions here in this world," Alvis replied.

"Well what about me?" Shulk asked. "Are you saying that I should stop?"

"I never said that exactly," Alvis corrected. "Shulk, you and Andrew are…fluctuations. And as such, both of you exist outside the results of what the Monodo shows you."

"You mean to say that we exist outside the ether flow," I simplified.

"Exactly," Alvis responed. "And the more you accept this fact of your existences, the more malleable the world becomes. In fact you have no choice but to accept it."

"So your saying that, based on our actions, Shulk and I have the power to either save the world or destroy it?" I wanted to clarify.

Alvis nodded. "A terrible power, is it not?"

"It…definitely makes me think about myself and who I am," Shulk answered.

"Gives me the friggin' willies," I said. "And at the same time brings back a lot of unpleasant memories."

…

I was standing in the ruins of a town. A town that I did not recognize.

"Where…am I…?"

I started to walk down the cracked street. It looked like an earthquake had shaken up the place. The sky was covered in dark clouds with a dark purple glow. Thunder and lighting erupted in the sky every now and then. There were fires scattered all over the place, along with destroyed cars, shattered windows, and skeletons as far as the eye could see. It looked like the apocalypse had taken place.

"Wait…is this…?"

As I continued walk down the desolate street, the buildings started to become more familiar to me.

"No…it can't be!"

I knew where I was. My hometown. This was New Market. And it was completely destroyed.

"Magnificent, isn't it?" A voice that I really did not want to hear again spoke behind me. I turned around to face someone that I really hated.

Father Pete.

"You!" I shouted at him.

"The power that these creatures possess," he continued to ramble. "And they are God's divine hammer as he cleanses this wretched world of the evil that inhabits it."

"We're not all evil you psychotic prick!" I yelled.

"Perhaps, but you are capable of it," another voice said. I turned to my left to see Officer Patrick Rogers leaning against a busted police car. "You remember all of the school shootings that took place in the last year? All those deaths occurred by the hands of people who were once kind-hearted souls. And they fell into the temptation of evil."

"We've always have those kinds of temptations since the beginning of creation!" I argued. "Yeah, those shootings were tragic, but I seriously doubt that would be any justification for this slaughter!"

"This goes back further than just innocent kids being killed," one more said. I turned behind me and saw Doctor Thomas Daniels standing next to a busted ambulance. "Remember what you said earlier? The history of this world is soaked in blood and madness? Think back to all of the major wars that have been waged. Countless people went on the warpath to try and prove a point, sacrificing millions in the process. God put this plan into motion since the start of the Cold War, giving humanity thousands of opportunities to better themselves, but that all fell apart on the day of 9/11. People were willing to sacrifice themselves and the lives of thousands of innocence because they thought they were doing the work of God. That is what's called heresy. It's acts like this that get people like my family killed."

"You don't think I know that?!" I was getting furious now. "Seriously, what the fuck?! Have you guys been so blinded by this so-called divine intervention that you've forgot what it means to be human?! Of course we make mistakes! That's part of life! Sometimes we make the most horrible of decisions, but we keep moving forward to better ourselves! To prove to everyone in the world that we as a whole are better than those who wronged so many people!"

"And where do you think that's gotten you?" A very obnoxious voice called out over what sounded like a speaker. I turned to my right and saw Jason Anderson's image on a giant TV with a cracked screen. "The answer is nowhere fast. With every passing day you guys just dig yourselves deeper and deeper into your own grave. Not just with wars, but with shitty legal decisions, and political scandals. Why do you think everyone in the world hates each other so much? Because people keep screwing each other just for the hell of it!"

"That's not true and you know it!" I fired a Chaos Shot at the TV and shattered the screen. But then a blinding blaze of light shot out from the shattered glass and pinned me to the ground. A bright sword suddenly impaled me through me chest and out my back.

"AAAAGUHH!" It hurt worse than Metal Face's claws. I looked up to see who it was that attacked me.

Gabriel.

"Have you ever wondered why there were so many natural disasters during your lifetime?" he asked. "All those hurricanes and earthquakes? That was all part of God's plan as well. To gradually reduce the population little by little until the day of you where you would bring destruction to the world came."

I ignited my hand in a dark flame, grabbed Gabriel's blade, and crushed it. "You think I'm just going to accept that bull shit?"

"You have no choice but to accept it," God's voice echoed through out the sky.

The ground then collapsed underneath me, causing me to fall into the Timeless Void.

"Did you really think that just because you got some power you could save this world?" God questioned me, before the gate to my world slammed shut.

I continued to fall through the void, until a dark demonic looking hand caught me. I looked up to see what was going on and saw the Time Eater.

" _So they are using my people to smite your world,"_ it's voice echoed. _"Disgusting. Master, you mustn't let the words of those fools cloud your mind. They are being deceived. And in time, when you are strong enough, we shall show them the errors of their ways. But first, we must seek the keys to go back to where it all began."_

"Keys?" I asked. "What keys, what are you talking about?"

" _You must awake now, master. An uninvited presence approaches you and your friends."_

…

My eyes shot open and I quickly sat up straight, panting hard, and drenched in cold sweat. I looked around to find where I was.

Ose Tower.

Everyone but me was fast asleep.

A nightmare.

That's all it was.

Just a nightmare.

But…why was the Time Eater in it? What was it saying about keys? And why didn't it speak when we first met? Or for that matter why didn't it speak at all?

…

Wait, what did it say about an "uninvited presence?"

Suddenly I started to feel the same feeling I did when we first got to Valak Mountain. My seventh sense. The feeling I got when I thought someone was watching us. Only now it was stronger than before. I stood up on my feet and headed towards the door. I had a gut feeling that whoever was following us would be outside. So I left Ose Tower and the mountain crevasse where it was located. If a fight was going to happen, I wanted it to be as far away from my friends as possible.

"Alright!" I called out to the air when I felt like I had gone far enough. "Whoever's been following us, come on so I can see you!"

Silence.

"Hello?"

More silence.

"Hey, it's freezing cold out here, so the sooner we wrap this up, the sooner I can go back to sleep."

Suddenly I felt two blades stab me in the back and through my chest. "GAAAAHH!"

"You may sleep when you're dead," a women's voice behind me said.

"Oww…okay, lady…" I said as I pushed the blades back through my chest. "If this is how you greet everybody you meet, you're gonna have a hard time finding a boyfriend." I then pulled by back away from the two blades that had stabbed me, allowing my wounds to heal. I turned around to face my assailant.

What I saw was a female High Entia with long wings on her head. She was dressed in a black and red outfit and wore a mask on her face. On her arms was a pair of gauntlets that had blades at the ends. They also had an oval shape in the middle of them, probably to act as a shield.

"How..." the woman said in a shaky voice. "How do you still live? I just stabbed your heart!"

"Yeah, funny thing about that," I said scratching my head. "I lost that thing about two days ago. Along with almost everything else in my original body."

The female High Entia appeared to be giving me a hard and focused look. "Am I correct in assuming that you are Andrew Hindle? The mysterious boy who claims to be from another dimension?"

"Oh, so you've heard of me?" I said teasingly. "I'd be flattered if you hadn't stabbed me earlier."

"Only rumors," she replied. "I never believed them. But after seeing you survive that attack, it is clear to me that some of those rumors were true. Obviously, you are not a Homs. What are you?"

"Still working on figuring that out myself," I said. "But before we go on about me, I'd like to hear more about you. Judging by your get up, am I correct in assuming you're one of the Bionite Order?"

The woman's head snapped back a little in surprise. "You know of us?"

"I've done my research," I answered. "And now that I think about it, your outfit is surprisingly similar to the assassin that tried to kill Melia in the High Entia Tomb."

"Where did you hear that?"

"Shulk told me. Y'know, the guy that wields the Monodo."

"Ugh, that pest!" the woman said with hate in her voice.

"Am I also correct in assuming that you're that same person from the Tomb?"

There was a brief second of silence. Then…

"Very well," she responded. "I see no reason to hide myself from such an individual as you."

She then removed her mask and tossed it into the snow. Just like Melia, she had deep sapphire blue eyes, and silver hair. Her hair was longer than Melia's and more flowing too. The back of her hair was in a branded ponytail that drooped down her right shoulder, died in black and pink stripes. The ends of her long flowing hair were also dyed pink, as well as her eyelids. They had a pink shade on them.

"I am Tyrea Antiqua," she introduced herself. "Daughter of the Second Consort, Yumea."

AN: DUN DUN DUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNN! Remember when I said I was going to add a character to the story that I feel didn't get enough attention. Well, here she is! That's right folks, Tyrea is going to be a major role in the story! I hope you find that interesting. Now, a little heads up. I'm going to be away at Ocean City New Jersey for about a week with my folks, so I won't be able to get started on chapter six until I come back. Gotta spend time with my family every now and then. But hopefully this chapter will tide you over till then. STAY TUNED!


	8. Chapter 6-Welcome To The Party, Tyrea

AN: NEEEEEEXT! No wait, wait, wait! Gotta go through some reviews first.

Darkwarp: Funny thing about Tyrea. In the game, near the end of the story, there is a side quest in where you encounter Tyrea once again in Colony 6. In that side quest it is confirmed that Tyrea is actually a half-blood just like Melia. She just inherited the recessive genes for the large wings on her head. So Tyrea being a half blood was not my idea, but I did feel like I should flesh her out more as a character and give her a background of her own. But I'm glad you like it so far! And if you liked that, I'm sure you'll like this chapter.

DoshesToDoshes: Thanks for pointing that out, man. I have actually noticed that I was spelling Monado wrong after chapter five, but I've been too lazy to go back into the word documents to change it. I will eventually though.

Okay, now, NEEEEEEXT! For real this time.

Chapter Six-Welcome To The Party, Tyrea

 _Sometimes allies can come from unexpected places._

 _The same can be said for enemies._

"Antiqua?" I repeated. "Wait, so then you're Kalian's half brother and Melia's step sister?"

"I am," she answered.

"What are you doing all the way out here?"

"After I was defeated in the Tomb by the hands of those filthy Homs and that half-breed," she explained. "I went into hiding in order to avoid capture. When I was sure it was safe, I infiltrated into the tower of investigation to receive new orders from Her Highness the Second Consort. But she said that there were no orders. She told me that the mission was a failure and that I was a disgrace to the Bionite Order." She went silent for a few seconds. "She disowned me."

"Oh," I said. "That's…wow, that's gotta be tough…"

"Spare me your pity," Tyrea spat at me in disgust. "Why should you care?"

"Because you're my friend's sister. That's every reason for me to care."

"Hah! Sister?" she scoffed. "That filth?! Never! I will never accept her as the successor to our people!"

"Why?" I argued. "Is it because she's a half-blood?"

"Of course," she said. "We have no need for mixed blood in our empire!"

"But you're Melia's sister! Doesn't that make you half Homs too?"

"I am a pure blood!" Tyrea shouted. "The only type of blood that is ever needed in the family!" She had a furious look on her face. "Only pure bloods should have the right to throne! What about being a half-breed is so special that our race need focus on mixed breeding?!"

I had a pretty good idea where this was going.

"That girl…that vile girl took everything from me!" Her weapons were shaking in her grasp now. I couldn't tell if it was from rage or the cold. "I have always been in her shadow since the day I was born. I have more right to the throne than she ever will! Were it not for the consort system that has so polluted the pride of our people…if she had never been born…it would have been me! A pureblooded High Entia who would build the future of our people! But that girl…that filth…stole it from me! What is so special about her?! What makes he so much better than me?!"

There was a moment of silence as the mountains echoed with Tyrea's furious yells.

I sighed. "Okay, I think I've got a pretty good idea on why you've been following us. You want revenge?"

"Indeed," Tyrea replied. "Ever since the Mechon attack on Eryth Sea, the number of imperial guards around the capital increased, making it too dangerous for me to stay. So, after eavesdropping on where your little party was heading, I decided to pursue. I have nothing to lose." She raised her weapon. "I will strike down that abomination of a High Entia, and slay the one who wields the Monado, along with his friends! Then, I will claim Monodo for myself, and travel to Mechonis all on my own! I will eliminate the Mechon threat by myself without the help some petty allied force! Then my people will see! They will see that I am the one who is truly worthy of the throne!"

I just face palmed. This girl was nuts. But I couldn't say that I blamed her for thinking like that. Her situation was actually quite similar to mine when I got thrown out of my world. Still…

"Oh brother, okay, look," I said. "I'm sorry that your life has taken a turn for the worst, but the words that are coming out of your mouth are just plain insane."

Tyrea just scowled at me.

"For starters, you do realize that trying to wield the Monado is like playing with fire, right? Not just anyone can use it. You'll just get yourself hurt, if not killed."

Tyrea smirked. "I heard of a Homs during the war one year ago that was able to force the Monado to work for him. If a couple of lowly Homs are able to wield it, then why can't a High Entia like myself do the same?"

"I feel like I should tell you that the guy before Shulk lost the use of his right arm when he used the Monado," I explained. "If you even attempt to touch that weapon, chances are it's just going to consume you. And even if you are able to do it, I'm not gonna let you within six inches of Mel and my friends." I ignited my arms and legs and took a boxer stance.

Tyrea got into her battle stance as well. "Tell me," she said. "Is it true what they say about you? That you cannot die?"

I smirked. "Do you really want to know the answer to that?"

Her gaze intensified. "As a matter of fact, I do!"

(Cue Engage The Enemy)

Tyrea then dashed forward, attempting to stab me with her right blade. I leaned to my left to dodge it, and then brought my right hand to upper cut her in the jaw. She saw it coming and deflected it with her left gauntlet, and pushed my hand aside, slashing my neck. I clutched, the gash where Tyrea's blade would've drawn blood, feeling the sting of her attack. I was extremely fortunate to have a body like this. I grunted in irritation, and jumped in the air, using Blazing Dive. Tyrea blocked it with both of her gauntlets shielding herself. She pushed my foot off them, causing me to back flip back to the ground on my feet. I then charged forward and assaulted her with a flurry off punches and kicks.

Tyrea's defensive reflexes were amazingly good. She was able to parry each of my attacks, blow for blow, with her finding openings in my attacks to counterstrike. They were pretty obvious though, and I was able to parry them back. After a bit, I summoned Death's Hand for one grand punch, in hopes of knocking her back a bit. She was able to block it with her gauntlets, but the force of the impact did cause her to stumble back a bit. She glared daggers at me. I fired a Chaos Shot as soon as I saw this opening. Tyrea back flipped out of the way, then charged at me with both of her blades thrust forward. I managed to stop her by catching her blades in my hands. The both of us struggled against each other, seeking to gain the upper hand.

"Why do you insist on defending them?" Tyrea angrily asked me. "You are not of this world. You barely even know them. What do you seek to gain by aiding them in their quest?"

"Well for starters," I grunted. "Perhaps I can find a way back home. I've got some unfinished business there. And I think I know them well enough to be able to call them my friends. There really doesn't need to be a complex reason why I want to help my friends out. Because I feel like I should. That's all."

Tyrea laughed at that. "'Friends,' you say? Hah. How naïve. What if I were to tell you that my sister is a hypocrite? Just like me."

I raised an eyebrow at that. "What are you talking about?"

"If we are honest, what is the difference," she continued. "She, too, would take the lives of her own people to protect her bloodline. Just like me, she is nothing but an assassin!" She then laughed in my face.

I had no idea where this was coming from. "Oh, that's a load of crap," I said irritably back. "You think what you're doing is for the pride of your people? Bullshit. Why don't you just go ahead and admit that you're jealous of Melia!"

Her gaze on me intensified. "Do you really think I would be jealous of her?!"

"What, am I wrong? It's written all over your face! And your actions are a dead give away! You're envious of her, aren't you? Of how she lives her life. What you're doing right now is nothing more than a child throwing a temper tantrum, just because she didn't get what she wanted. You're not fighting for the pride of your people, you just want prove that your existence means something. You want everybody to feel sorry for you, for being in the shadows all your life."

"How dare you?!" Tyrea shouted at me. "No one, not even an outsider has the right to speak to me like that!"

"Ah, cram it!" I shouted back. "Face the facts, lady. If this is your reason for fighting, you'll never have the same life as Mel's! Do you even have the faintest clue of why she's even doing this in the first place?! It's not just about being a half-breed, or imperial duty, or hell even avenging your father! She's fighting this fight because she wants to! Simple as that! Even if you'd been born in her place, I'm sure Sorean still would've chosen Mel as her successor a thousand times over! Taking charge of the imperial line isn't all about blood. It's about taking on the will to do whatever it takes for your land, for your people, when the time comes. That's what makes Melia different from you!"

"SHUT YOUR MOUTH!" Tyrea furiously screamed at me, ramming her blades through my hands.

"AH! Alright, that does it!" I clutched Tyrea's weapons and pulled her towards me with all my strength. The surprised look on her face was hilarious. I then head butted her in the face, causing her to scream in pain. After that, with my hands still having a firm grip on her weapons, I performed a back flip kick right to her jaw, making her fly upward and back a few inches. She lost her grip on her weapons and she was pushed back, leaving them still embedded in my hands.

Tyrea landed flat on her back in the snow, but slowly got up to her feet, clutching her face and glaring a look of pure hate at me. "You filth!" she yelled at me. Her fore head and lips were bleeding a little from my attacks.

"I can think of worse things to describe me," I said as I pulled her weapons out of my hands. I then snapped my fingers and a Time Gate to the Timeless Void appeared next to me. I tossed Tyrea's weapons in to the Void, and then closed the Time Gate. "Like 'thief,' for example."

"What have you done with my weapons?!"

"I put them in a place that's far out of your reach."

"Where?! Where are they?!"

"I'll tell you where they're not. On Bionis or Mechonis."

She started to charge up a ball of ether in her hand. "You think you're so clever, don't you?!"

"That's probably because I am."

She just growled furiously at me and threw the ball of ether at me.

I didn't even attempt to dodge. I just let it hit me in the left shoulder and disintegrate my arm. I just sighed pitifully and regenerated my arm along with the fabric of my shirt and jacket. Tyrea's gaze slightly turned from hate, to shock. She then fired another ether ball at my right arm. The result was the same. Tyrea then fired another ether ball at my chest. It tore a hole right through me, but I was still standing.

She fired again.

And again.

Over and over.

"Why?!" She yelled. "WHY?! Why won't you just DIE?!"

She continued to fire ball after ball of ether at me, riddling my body full of holes. But it was no use. Not a single one of her attacks could kill me. Tyrea was putting so much strength into eliminating me that she was exhausting her body of her own ether flow. I could see that she was starting to wear down. She stopped after a few seconds.

"Okay," I finally said as my wounds healed. "Have you got that out of your system?"

Tyrea just growled and then fired a bigger ball of ether directly at my head, blowing it clean off my body. I lost my sense of sight for about a second before it came back to me. I could see clearly, but my head now was just a big purple flame with two azure glowing eyes and a jagged mouth of the same color. Just like the Time Eater. Tyrea was now horrified at what she was seeing. And that look on her face just grew and grew as my face and head began to regenerate, complete with my hair and sunglasses.

"Ow," I said lazily. "Talk about one hell of a migraine."

"You…" Tyrea's body was shaking in fear now. "You…you monster…!"

I sighed. "Can't blame you for thinking that. Sure scared me the first time I learned about my abilities." I then slowly started to walk towards her.

"No…" she slowly started to back a way. "No…stop! Stay away from me!" Tyrea turned and flapped the wings on her head in an attempt to fly away. But she didn't get within a foot's length before I used Death's Hand to grab her by the leg and slam her back into the snow face first. I continued to slowly walk towards her, while she quickly turned her self over with a look of pure fear. Immediately she began crawling away from me on her hands and feet, realizing that flying away wasn't an option.

"Stop! Don't…don't come any closer!"

I ignored her.

"Stop! Please!"

I started to charge another Chaos Shot in my right hand.

"No…no…please…don't!"

Tyrea had run out of room to move, for she had backed herself up against a sheer rock wall. She was panting heavily now, her eyes wide in horror, tears evident in them.

"Me…? Envious…? She said in a shaky voice. "I…I only…I only think of my people…I only think…!"

I held my Chaos Shot close to her face, my attack primed and ready.

"I…I just wanted…I just…want to be like my sister…I just want to be important…"

I then dismissed the Chaos Shot. I looked at her with a calm expression on my face.

"There," I said. "You see? Aren't things much simpler if you're honest with yourself?"

Tyrea looked at me with confusion on her face. "Why…? Why didn't you…finish me…?"

"I don't kill to prove a point," I responded. I never had the intention to kill her. Or harm her. Needless to say, I'm a chivalrist. I don't believe in fighting women, at least if it's possible not to. It took every ounce of my concentration just to land a mark on her. I only wanted to take her will to fight away. That was all. "I wouldn't be any better than you if I did."

"But…" she uttered out, shakily, clearly still scared of me. "I…I was going to kill your friends…"

"Oh don't get me wrong, I'm still pissed as hell at you for even trying to do that. But at the same time…I can't really work up much hate for you. As a matter of fact, there are some similarities between your story and mine. And besides…after what happened on Prison Island, I don't want Mel to lose anymore family members, including you. Actually…now that I think about it, if I were to kill you here and now, I'd be just as bad as Metal Face…"

After that, Tyrea just broke down in tears. She just sat there and cried her eyes out. It was at this point, were my anger at her just vanished. Maybe I had gone a little too far. I knelt down next to her and, at the risk of getting hit with another ball of ether, wrapped my arms around her in a hug.

"Wh-what are you-?!"

"It's okay," I said calm. "Just pretend that I'm not here, and cry as much as you need to."

She really didn't bother to argue with that. Actually, she really didn't bother to ignore me. She just clutched my jacket tightly in her hands, buried her face in my left shoulder, and just bawled her eyes out. This went on for about a good two minutes until she finally started to calm down a bit.

"Okay," I said. "Now let me ask again. Have you got that out of your system?"

Tyrea gave me what I think was a bit of a passive-aggressive look, but she nodded.

"Good," I said. I then let go of her and sat down in the snow next to her. I actually kinda forgot how cold it was on the mountain during our fight.

"So…what will you do with me...?" Tyrea asked me.

I scratched my head at this. "Um…huh…not really sure about that…I mean, I don't really feel right leaving you here like this, but at the same time I don't really think I should let you go wandering off again on your own."

Tyrea slowly looked at me. "You think I will attack you again, don't you?"

"Hey, you're the one who said you have nothing to lose," I said.

Her head sank. "Yes. That is true. I cannot go back to my home. And I doubt there would be anywhere on Bionis where a person like me would be accepted." She curled her legs up to herself. "There is nothing left for me in this world. Perhaps…I should just take my own life."

"Hey," I said to her with a serious look on my face. "Don't say that. I already said that I wasn't going to let Mel lose another family member, and I intend to keep my word."

"But…I have nothing…"

"You still have a family."

"Don't be foolish. Why would my sister and my brother ever want me with them?"

"Because Melia still loves you," I said.

Tyrea looked back at me, doubt in her eyes. "What makes you so sure of that?"

"She told me that you and her used to argue a lot when you were kids."

She chuckled at that a little. "Yes, that's true. We never did agree on many things. I always teased her on how short her wings were and she would taunt me about my wings being so large that I would trip over them." Tyrea then stared off into distance. "Actually, now that I think about it, there were days where she and I would play in that garden she loved so much." A small smile formed on her lips as he said this. "I sometimes wish I could go back to those days."

I smiled with her. "Don't we all?"

There was a bit of silence. Then…

"Um…Andrew…right…?"

I looked over to her. "Yeah…?"

"I'm…not used to calling my enemies by their names…but…since I am not to be the heir to the throne of the High Entia…what do you suggest I do…?"

I thought about that for a bit. "That's really not for me to say," I replied. "That's an answer you'll have to figure out on your own. I mean, hey, you've got a working pair of legs right? You should use them to move forward. That's really all I can say about what you do next."

She was quiet for a couple of seconds. "I…suppose you're right…" she finally said.

I got up on my feet. "Welp, I'd better head back to the others. I don't want them to wake up and notice I'm gone and then freak out."

I started to walk back towards the path to Ose Tower.

"Um…wait…" Tyrea said behind me. I looked back to see her getting up on her feet. "I have nowhere else to go…so…would it….would it be alright if I accompanied you and your friends on your journey?"

That was a bold request, especially after the fight we just had. "Uhhh….well…I dunno…" I said scratching the back of my head. "I mean, you're not still gonna try to kill them and take the Monado are you?"

"I have already fought you once and lost," she replied. "I do not need to fight you a second time to know the outcome."

"Can I take that as a no?"

"You may."

"Promise?"

"I do."

I sighed. "Okay. However," I snapped my fingers and a Bind Chain wrapped around her both of her hands, holding them together. "You'll have to be a prisoner for a little while. Just because I'm trusting you, which is a big gamble on my end I might add, doesn't mean that the others will."

She nodded. "That is a very wise decision. But why my hands? I can still use my wings to fly away if I want to."

"You want me to grab you by the leg and face plant you in the snow again?"

"I would prefer if you didn't."

"Then don't try it."

She nodded again in understanding of her position. "Very well."

"Okay," I said. "We'll head back to the others in a bit. But first, we need to get you somewhere warm."

She gave me a puzzled look. "What do you mean?"

"Be honest with me. How long have you been out here in the cold?"

"…Around…three hours I'd say…why?"

I pointed to her hands, which were now a hot red color. "That's first degree frost bite you've got there. If you stay out here in the cold any longer there's a good chance your fingers will go numb and then you could get nerve damage."

Tyrea didn't seem to understand what I was saying. I just sighed and simplified things for her. "Stay out here for too long and your fingers will get frozen for good and become useless."

"Oh," she replied. "I do not wish for that."

"Neither do I. So, we've got to find someplace warm for you."

"But…how are we going to do that? This is the coldest region on Bionis."

"Yeah that's true. But on our way to Ose Tower, I did happen to spot a geyser on the way down. And normally, where there's a geyser, there's heat nearby. Like a warm cave or something."

Tyrea just gave weird look.

"Yeah I know, I say geyser weird. That's just my accent, don't over analyze it."

She shrugged in response. "Regardless, your theory appears to be sound. So, where is this geyser?"

"From here? Not even a mile. Just follow me." I started to walk forward and Tyrea followed. "Oh, also," I added. "When was the last time you ate?"

As if on cue, Tyrea's stomach growled loudly. I looked back at her as I heard that sound. The High Entia's eyes were wide with surprise, her wings were flared back, and her face was a little red with embarrassment.

I chuckled a little. "Come on," I said. "I've still got some leftover monster meat stored in the Timeless Void. Once we find the place we're looking for, I'll make a fire, and cook you something to eat. I'm not the best when it comes to the culinary arts, but I'll do what I can."

Tyrea smiled a bit at my offer. "I…would appreciate that," she said softly.

…

In a cave that concealed molten lava within a small part of Valak Mountain, Andrew and Tyrea had taken shelter for a few hours until Tyrea's fingers had completely warmed up. Andrew, as he had promised, was trying his best to serve Tyrea some food, but was struggling to produce something decent. He decided that some soup would be best. The geyser nearby would serve as excellent broth with the water being hot by the magma, but the rest of it was a challenge. Andrew had to experiment with various monster meats in order to get a taste that Tyrea would at least find tolerable. But the biggest problem was that he really didn't have any seasoning. No matter what Andrew tried, the soup just ended up tasting like random monster meat in hot water. And he didn't want Tyrea to have to eat something that didn't taste good. Although taste wasn't entirely necessary, he still wanted to treat her well. Albeit she was trying to assassinate his friends earlier.

While Andrew was trying to figure out the food situation, Tyrea was trying to sift through her thoughts. To her, Andrew was…unusual…to say the least. Tyrea was not expecting him to spare her life so willingly. Why didn't he just finish her off? Granted he said he didn't want Melia to loose anymore of her family, which she would admit, was actually very considerate of him, but it couldn't be the sole reason why he decided to let her live. For example, what did he mean when he said that her story was similar to hers? Did he have a similar experience in his life? If he did, what did that have anything to do with his presence in this world? But the question that puzzled her most was why she asked to go with the boy. Needless to say, this baffled her as much as it appeared to baffle Andrew. Could it be because she wanted to see her sister again? Tyrea after all did want to reconnect with Melia. Or was it because the boy…intrigued her? Buy why? Tyrea really couldn't understand…but for some reason she found herself…drawn to him. It wasn't everyday you met someone like him. Being from a different world and all.

"Ugh, soup should not be this frustrating to make!"

An irritated grunt brought Tyrea out of her thoughts. Andrew was waking back with a bowl of something steaming in his hands.

"What's that?" Tyrea asked.

"My best slash first slash possibly worst attempt at making soup."

"What kind?"

"Part tomato soup, part….uh something else. Still working on a name for it."

"Tomato soup?" Tyrea repeated, puzzled.

"Something from my world," Andrew answered. "It basically involves crushing a tomato into a type of sauce and then mixing it in with broth. But I don't have any broth, so I had to use hot water from the geyser as a substitute. And crushing a tomato into is not as easy as it sounds."

Andrew sat down next to Tyrea and handed her the bowl and a spoon.

"Careful, it's hot," he warned.

Tyrea gently grabbed the bowl and winced as she felt the strong heat from it. He wasn't kidding when he said it was hot. As quickly and gently as she could, Tyrea sent the bowl down in her lap and looked at its contents. As Andrew had said, he had crushed a tomato to make a type of sauce and mixed it in with hot water. So of course the make-shift broth looked red with a saucy texture. Aside from that there were chunks of food in the soup. Some looked like bread chunks and others looked like meat.

"I uh…gave it a taste test," Andrew said. "It tastes okay. Not great, but it's decent. I think so anyways."

Tyrea silently nodded and proceeded to take a sip of the soup. She dipped her spoon in the bowl, scooping out some of the bread and meat chunks. She slowly brought the spoon to her lips and sipped the contents into her mouth. She closed her eyes as she savored the taste then opened her eyes in shock as she swallowed.

Andrew sighed as he looked at Tyrea's expression. "It's terrible, isn't it?" he asked with disappointment in his voice.

Tyrea shook her head in earnest. "No," she said. "It's good."

Andrew chuckled a little. "Yeah, right. You're probably just saying that. You're probably just saying that."

"No," she insisted. "I'm being honest. It truly is good. I will admit it is a tad bitter, but the overall flavor covers it up." And she meant every word.

"Seriously?" Andrew raised an eyebrow at this.

Tyrea nodded in response.

"But…I literally just made all the ingredients for this up in my head."

"Well," Tyrea replied as she gave a small gentle smile. "You must have done something right."

Andrew smiled back. "Heh. If you say so."

"I have to ask, though. How did you come across the ingredients for this in such a short amount of time?

Andrew snapped his fingers, and right on cue, the same vortex that had appeared during their fight appeared once again.

"Got the tomato and bread from our food supplies back at Ose Tower, and the meat was from a few Amul's we killed on our way down the mountain. I pulled them from the Timeless Void."

Tyrea raised an eyebrow in confusion at those last words. "Timeless…void…?"

"A rift between time and space," he explained. "It's essentially where I live and how I came to this world."

"Is that were you threw my weapons?"

"Yup."

"And you live there…?"

"Well, I say live there, but it's more like a prison."

Tyrea's eyes widened. "You're a prisoner?"

"Kinda."

"Why?"

Andrew sighed. "Uhhhhh…that's…a long story. And not particularly pleasant memory for me."

"Oh, I see," answered Tyrea, mentally cursing herself for asking such a sensitive question. This was followed a second later with her mentally asking why she even cared about what the boy felt.

Andrew thought for a few seconds, made a "tsk," sound with his tongue against his teeth and said, "Eh, what the hell. Got nothing better to do."

Tyrea looked at Andrew in surprise. "Are…you sure…? You just said-"

"Yeah, I know, but it's probably best I come to terms with it. It's just going to drive me nuts if I don't at least talk to someone about it." Andrew then turned to Tyrea with a small smile on his face. "Try not to fall asleep, cuz this story is kinda long."

Tyrea smiled back a bit. "I won't."

And with that, Andrew dived into the story of his origins. He told Tyrea of his family back at home, how he loved them to no end, and how they sometimes got on his nerves to no end. They both got a few good laughs when Andrew explained how bad his great grandfather was at making burgers that the blew up the grill almost every time, and the various and hilarious sleepwalking mishaps that went on with his brother Leo when he was still a kid. He explained his goal in life the best he could without confusing Tyrea, which happened quite frequently. Andrew simplified by saying that it was a type of entertainment in his world and decided to leave it at that. He also talked about his love for music and how he loves to apply it to basically everything in his life. Andrew then dived into the history of his world. Or what he knew of it at least. He was never really good in his history classes. He talked about the many historical figures in his world, both good and bad, as well as the many atrocities and wars that have happened in his world. But Andrew also told of the good people who put an end to those wars and stood up against future ones. He spoke of the many good deeds that human beings have done to prove that they are better than the people who wronged so many others.

And finally…Andrew spoke of his terrible fate.

All the while, Tyrea listened quietly, only interruption to ask a question to something she didn't understand. She smiled when Andrew became passionate with what he loved to do in his life, became serious when he spoke of the wars…and unbeknownst to her, she began to tear up when she heard Andrew's tragic story.

"Hey," Andrew spoke up after a bit.

"Hm?" Tyrea shook herself from her thoughts.

"Are you crying?"

"Wh-what…?" Even though it was evident, Tyrea hadn't noticed it until Andrew had said something. "Th-that's absurd…I am a hostage…you're my captor…why would I feel like-"

She was cut off by Andrew gently sliding his finger underneath her right eye. He wiped of what appeared to be a drop of water off her face. This caused Tyrea's eyes to widen slightly as she brought her left hand up to her face. Sure enough, there were small streaks of water coming out of her eyes.

" _Why…? Why do I care…?"_ she asked herself for the umpteenth time. _"We just met…we were enemies…yet…why…?"_ She just looked at Andrew for a few seconds.

"You okay?" Andrew asked.

Tyrea wasn't really sure how to answer. There was a whirlpool of thoughts going on in her head, and she had no idea how to sort them out.

"Why…?" she said softly.

"Hm?"

"Why…why are you being so…kind to me…?"

Andrew still didn't understand. "Is there a problem with that?"

"N-no…I just…a few minutes ago we were fighting…and now…we're just talking…"

"Hey, you were the one who asked to come along."

"Well, yes…but…I expected…hostility from you…but…when you showed mercy on me…"

"Well, yeah, of course I did. I told you I'd be no better than Metal Face if I did."

"Yes, you did…but…that's…entirely different from what I was taught. I was told to never let an enemy live no matter what. Such is the life of an assassin." She turned her eyes to the ground in front of her. "It is the life I have always known."

"Well," Andrew input. "I can definitely tell you there is more to life than just killing people you're told to kill. And personally, I really don't think that's a good life to live."

Tyrea looked back at Andrew. "What do you mean?"

"Tell me, have you ever been anywhere on Bionis other than Eryth Sea?"

Tyrea took a few seconds of silence, and then… "No…"

"Well then, living your life with just one thought in mind, one way of thinking, is no life at all. You asked me what you're supposed to do with your life now? I said I couldn't tell you. I only told you to find it by walking on your own legs. The direction you walk in is your call however."

"My…decision…" Tyrea smiled a little at that. "I've never had the luxury of making my own decisions…not like my sister…and now…I have the freedom to choose…and I think I know why I chose to accompany you…"

"Why's that?"

"Two reason's actually…one of which is hoping that I can reconnect with my sister."

"Which I might add will be met with hostility, not by me, but most likely by the others," warned Andrew.

"I am aware of that. As well as prepared."

"You sure?"

"I am."

"And the second reason?"

"To learn more about you I suppose."

Andrew froze at that. "Umm…huh…?"

"I know…absurd isn't it? But…I can't really say why…I feel like that's what my heart is telling me…I mean…you are a very strange and rare person…it's not everyday someone like you comes around…"

Andrew really wasn't sure how to take this. He was flattered that Tyrea had taken an interest him but there was one other girl in this world who had similar thoughts. If Melia were here, she might not have taken it too well.

"Well," Andrew said scratching his head. "I guess it's hard to argue with your heart…"

Tyrea nodded. "I suppose," she tried to explain her feelings of this decision. "It's because you were right?"

Andrew once again raised an eyebrow. "About what?"

"About our stories. You were right in saying that we are similar in that regard. Although mine is quite insignificant compared to yours. I cannot even begin to fathom what it is like to wake up one day and realize that you were born for the sole purpose for destroying your world. And losing your body on top of that."

"Yeah," Andrew chuckled a bit. "It does kinda suck. But I'd be lying if I said this body wasn't pretty nifty. I mean, when I get back home, I'll have the power to fight back against The Cursed and those four bastards. Actually, now that I think about it, I'm really the only hope my world has for seeing the light of day again. If I don't get back soon…" He sighed. "I don't want to think about it."

"That is quite the dilemma," Tyrea responded. "But, what exactly does traveling with the wielder of the Monado have to do with you?"

"Well, as I said, they are my friends and I feel obligated to help them. Also because Kalian appointed me as Mel's bodyguard."

Tyrea chuckled a little at that. "Yes, that definitely sounds like him. Always worrying so much Melia and I."

"Been meaning to ask about that, did he ever know that you had joined the Bionite Order?"

"Yes," Tyrea answered. "I was brought into the Order early in my childhood. Both my father and Kalian were against it, especially the First Consort. They knew that my joining would lead to the possibility of my sister and I confronting each other."

"Probably because they didn't want their children to fight each other," Andrew reasoned.

"Exactly," confirmed Tyrea.

"Did you ever have a say in the matter?"

"No," Tyrea replied. "I was too young to understand what it meant to be a pure blood High Entia. But as I grew up, Yumea taught that meaning to me. She never mentioned to me that I would have to face my sister. I only found out about this a few weeks ago."

"And what was your reaction?"

Tyrea thought about this for a few seconds. "I questioned it, though not openly. It was clear to me that Yumea absolutely despised the First Consort. She told me that it corrupted our noble blood, and in time I was convinced she was right. But…to think that it would lead me to confront my sister…we may have never seen eye to eye when we became aware of our imperial heritage but…she is still my sister…I had to force every inch of my body and soul to commit to my mission in the tomb…I was lost…I didn't know what I should've done." Tyrea then started to tear up again. "I didn't want to fight Melia…but…if I didn't, it would've angered mother…I didn't want that either…"

Andrew then leaned in to give Tyrea tight but gentle hug. Tyrea's face immediately turned a little red and the wings on her head started to flutter in embarrassment. Slowly, Tyrea returned the hug.

"Andrew," she said softly. "You are too much of a kind person."

"Yeah, I know," Andrew replied. "Probably my greatest weakness."

Tyrea laughed a little at that. "I suppose it could be considered that." She then pulled away from Andrew, but still had her arms wrapped around him as she looked into his emerald eyes. "But I don't believe that. Even though we have just met, from what you have told me about yourself, I believe that is one of the best things about you."

This time it Andrew's turn to turn a bright red. "U-umm…thanks…for that…" he said giving a shy smile.

Tyrea giggled a little bit, think that his reaction was quite adorable. Then, wanting to tease him just a little more, she released her arms around Andrew, and leaned her back into his chest. "Is it alright if I fall asleep like this?"

Andrew's face by this point had turned a bright crimson. "U-umm…" he stammered, "sure, but…why…?"

"Because your body is very warm and comfortable," Tyrea replied with a small smile.

Immediately Andrew felt a certain section in his pants getting REALLY uncomfortable. He both cursed his hormones and hoped to death that Tyrea didn't notice. Unfortunately for him, she did. She secretly gave herself a sly smile, but decided not to push the situation any further. She wasn't sure about her feelings towards this enigma of a boy. Actually wasn't really sure why she was doing this in the first place. She just…felt like it.

"But…we're sitting in a cave of molten lava. Shouldn't that take care of the warmth issue?"

"True," Tyrea replied and snuggled into Andrew, making herself comfortable. "But we're close to the entrance of the cave, so some of the cold air could blow in. And besides, I think you're warmer than this entire cave."

This made Andrew feel happy, awkward, and his pants WAAAAY too uncomfortable. But he really didn't want to put up an argument because Tyrea seemed happy right now. Besides, his body was probably more comfortable than lying against the rock wall of the cave.

" _So glad Mel isn't here to see this,"_ he said. _"I'd never hear the end of it."_ "U-umm…okay…I'll just, uh…keep watch for any monsters…"

Tyrea looked up at him with a confused expression. "You're not going to sleep?"

"My body doesn't need it," he replied. "And besides, before I found you, I had a bit of a nightmare. Really don't want that again."

Tyrea, having a fairly good idea what his nightmare was about, decided only to smile. "Very well," she said and closed her eyes.

"Umm…sweet dreams…" Andrew said, rather shyly.

" _Indeed,"_ Tyrea thought to herself as she drifted off to sleep for now.

Meanwhile Andrew was practically yelling at himself inside his head for the situation he was in. Since he came to this world he had started to develop a crush on Melia, and he felt it was the same for her too. But then along came Tyrea. Andrew, now that he had got a closer look at her, did admit that she was very pretty. But the way she acted around him just now…it was definitely flattering to say the least, but Andrew was pretty sure she was only teasing him. He kept cringing over how pissed Melia would be if she saw him like this. But considering that he would be taking her with him, he figured it more than likely something like this would happen again, probably with Melia, or Tyrea, or both. The last thing he wanted was some crazy otherworldly love triangle. He had already had a bad enough experience with his psychotic ex-girlfriend, and another girl who had a lot of positive feelings for him. And Andrew, being the kind-hearted person he was, just couldn't say no to either of them at the time. He hated being a heartbreaker. And that was where his weakness in his kindness showed.

Andrew sighed. _"If it ever comes to that, I'll deal with it,"_ he thought to himself. _"I'm stronger than I was before."_ He immediately recognized that he was lying to himself. _"Who am I kidding? I shouldn't even be having these feelings for Melia, or Tyrea. I mean, I'm from a different world, and I'll have to leave to go back and save my world. I may never see either of them again. Why bother falling for someone that you'll only get to meet once?"_ These thoughts were giving Andrew a serious headache, and before he knew it, his mind started to feel really tired. His eyes slowly started to shut, and all of a sudden his ears began to focus on the sound of Tyrea's breathing, who was fast asleep at this point.

" _Fuck it. I'll just sleep on it for now."_ And with that, Andrew drifted off into a deep slumber. He didn't have anymore bad dreams for the rest of the night, as his mind was working out possible scenarios where the three of them, Andrew, Melia, and Tyrea, could all be together. He would latter mentally kick himself for having a dream like that. But as he told Tyrea, it's hard to argue with your heart.

…

The next morning Shulk and the others woke up as soon as daylight hit the tower. Immediately they started to back their gear and proceeded to leave the tower. Alvis had gotten up before them and was already waiting outside for them.

"Good morning," he said. "Did we sleep well?"

"I can't feel my face or feet," complained Reyn. "What do you think?"

"Reyn not tell truth!" Riki spoke up. "Reyn's snoring make Riki think of Orluga!"

"Oi!" Reyn protested, crossing his arms and staring down at Riki. "I don't snore!"

Alvis just let out a chuckle at Reyn and Riki's bickering.

"Wait!" Melia exclaimed all of a sudden. "Where's Andrew?!"

Now that she had mentioned it, the boy in the blue jacket was nowhere to be seen.

"Uh oh," said Sharla.

"You don't think he left us, do you?" Dunban inquired Alvis.

"I'm not sure," was his response.

Suddenly a Time Gate opened up in front of them and out jumped Andrew.

"Sorry, sorry! We overslept," he said frantically.

Melia breathed a sigh of relief. _"Wait. 'We?'"_

Just then another person came jumping out of the Time Gate. She was a High Entia wearing a black and red combat suit, with long wings on her head and black and pink highlights in her hair. Melia also noticed that her hands were wrapped in Andrew's Bind Chains, like some kind of prisoner. Immediately, she recognized this individual.

"Who's this?" Shulk asked Andrew.

"Oi!" Reyn exclaimed. "Ain't she the one who attacked us in the capital?"

"That I am," the girl responded. "I am Tyrea Antiqua, daughter of the Second Consort, Yumea."

"Sister…" Melia said. "It really is you…"

Tyrea gave a small smile to Melia. "Hello, Melia."

"Andrew…why is she here…?" Melia asked.

"I sensed her following us."

"You…sensed her…?" Melia didn't understand what that meant.

"Yeah, turns out that sensing a person's life force is another one of my abilities," Andrew replied.

Reyn whistled at that. "I swear, man, you just keep surprising us day by day."

Andrew chuckled a little. "Yeah, I got a feeling that's gonna become quite the trend."

"Hold on," interrupted Dunban. "When we first came to Valak, you said you thought someone was following us. Is this the same person?"

"Yup," I said. "She's been tailing us ever since we left Eryth Sea."

"But…we took a pod to Makna," Shulk tried to make sense of this. "She couldn't have boarded it with us, we would've noticed."

Andrew scratched his head. "Huh…yeah, that's a good question."

"Bird people have wings!" Riki said, bouncing up and down. "Bird people can fly!"

Andrew then face palmed. "Wow, I'm dumb. Completely forgot about that."

"So then you flew after us?" Alvis asked.

"Indeed." Tyrea replied.

"But why were you following us?" Dunban asked. "Surely you know of our strength by now."

"Ty," Andrew said. "You may want to do the talking on this."

Tyrea nodded, and took a deep breath. "Very well," she said.

And so Tyrea told them about Yumea disowning her and her desire for revenge against the Shulk and his friends. She told them about her fight with Andrew and how he showed mercy on her, as well as how he treated her frostbite by finding a warm cave to rest in for a bit. Finally, she explained how she wanted join them on their quest.

"Uh-uh," Reyn refused. "No way, I don't trust her."

"And no one's asking you too," Andrew deadpanned. "But she's still Melia's sister, and there for she's her responsibility. And as her bodyguard, whatever is her responsibility is also mine." He then turned to Melia. "So, princess, what'll it be?"

Melia thought about this for a moment, and then walked closer to Tyrea. "Sister…" she said. "Is everything you said the truth? Do you really mean what you said…about mending our wounds from the past?"

"I do…" Tyrea answered. "I do not expect you to trust me openly trust me yet. But…I do hope that in time…we can be like when were as children." Tyrea gave a small sad smile, knowing the outcome of her efforts were probably fruitless.

Melia looked at Andrew. "And what about you?"

"Well," he said. "She hasn't attempted to blow my head off again. Which, I might add, gave me a pretty bad headache."

"I still find that hard to believe," Sharla said.

"Hey, if I'm unlucky enough, I'm pretty sure the Mechon will try to do that," Andrew joked. "Then you can see it for yourself."

Alvis folded his arms. "Andrew, I'm beginning to think your existence not only disrupts the ether, but also defies logic itself."

"Well, considering that I'm from another world and whatnot, I doubt that should come as a surprise to you." Andrew said this with a cheeky grin. He did like the idea that his existence could do that. Ever since he was young he loved watching movies of people pulling off feats that more or less bitch slapped logic in the face.

Alvis laughed a little at that. "No, I suppose not."

Andrew then turned back to Melia. "Anyways, I digress. I also believe that everyone deserves at least one shot at redemption. So, yeah, I believe her."

"But how will she defend herself if we have to fight?" Melia asked.

"I'll release her chains and give her weapons back. But only if she has to fight. Afterwards I'll take back her weapons and bind her hands again. If you guys get to a point where you can trust her too, then I'll remove the chains permanently and giver her weapons back for good." Andrew turned to Tyrea. "You okay with that?"

"It seems fair," she replied. "I do not wish to be a burden to everyone."

Andrew nodded and then turned to Shulk. "What about you?"

"Well," he said. "If she's willing to pull her own weight, then I guess it wouldn't hurt to have one more member on our side."

"Having another High Entia on our side could even boost the morale of the allied force," Dunban deduced.

Tyrea smiled at that. "If that is possible," she said. "Then I will be happy to do my best."

Melia thought for a few seconds. Tyrea did seem to have put her grievances behind her after she had met Andrew. And her demeanor did seem much gentler then when she fought her in the Tomb. But somehow…the fact that a girl other than her was alone with Andrew made her feel…uneasy. She shook those thoughts from her mind, thinking that she shouldn't jump to conclusions. If there was even a slight chance that she and her sister, whom she never stopped loving, could be together again, then she wanted to take it.

"Very well," she said, and then gave Tyrea a big hug. "Welcome back, sister. I'm so happy I get to see you again."

Tyrea, unable to return the hug since her hands were chained, simply kissed Melia's head. "As am I," she said.

Andrew then placed a hand on Tyrea's shoulder. "Welcome to the party, Tyrea."

Tyrea smiled in response.

"So then, is it all settled?" Alvis asked.

Andrew gave the thumbs up.

Reyn sighed. "I don't really see a point in arguing, especially since Shulk agreed to it."

"Very well," Alvis said. "Then let us depart. Sword Valley is just around the corner."

"YES!" Andrew exclaimed. "Time to ditch this icicle stand!" He ran ahead of the others.

Melia and Tyrea laughed a little at Andrew's desperation to get out of the cold.

"Your friend is an extremely kind person," Tyrea said. "He actually said that might be his weakness."

Melia smiled. "Perhaps. But I don't think that's true. I believe his kindness is one of the many things that makes Andrew an incredibly wonderful person."

Tyrea smiled too, as the both of them watched Andrew run off with the others trying to catch up to him.

"I agree."

…

"Goddamn it, this sucks!" I yelled over the howling wind. Just my luck that a blizzard decided to show up as we were leaving the mountain. "Yo, Al! How much further do we have to go?!"

"Do you see that tall rock up ahead?" Alvis yelled back over the wind.

"Barely!" I responded. It was hard to make out with all the snow blowing in my face.

"Sword Valley is just beyond there. Just keep moving forward!" 

"Okay!"

We continued to push forward for a few more seconds. Then we heard the sound of a loud sonic boom in the air.

"What was that?!" Tyrea asked.

"Sounded like an engine!" I said. We all turned our eyes to the sky to see where it was coming from. Sure enough, we spotted a silver faced Mechon flying through the air.

"That Mechon!" Dunban exclaimed.

"It's Nemesis!" I exclaimed, with hope in my voice. Maybe now I could finally get some answers.

Nemesis flew down towards us and landed on her feet in front of the tall rock pillar. Shulk started rushing towards her, eager to see the girl inside the frame. I followed in pursuit. The cockpit on Nemesis' chest opened up to reveal the girl named Fiora.

"It is you!" Shulk exclaimed happy to see her again.

"Hey!" Reyn exclaimed behind us. "That's Fiora!" He started to run up to Shulk and I, along with the others.

"A Homs inside a Mechon?!" Tyrea exclaimed. "What madness is this?!"

"That's what we all would like to know," Melia said.

"Young Heir to the Monado," Fiora said to Shulk. "We meet again."

"Fiora!" Shulk called her name.

"Fiora…?" she responded with a confused expression. "Is…is that my name? Then you…you know this body…?"

"Oh man," I said. Apparently she had forgotten who she was prior to the attack on Colony 9.

"So it's true…" Shulk said with a depression in his voice. "You really don't remember us at all…" Shulk then looked up at her with a determination in his eyes. "Fiora, listen! If nothing else, you must remember your family!" He then pointed to her older brother. "That's Dunban over there!"

Fiora gave a surprised expression on her face as she looked at the one-armed warrior. "Family…?" she replied. "So there is family…" It was at that point she focused her eyes on me. "And…you are here as well? Why?"

"I was hoping I'd run into you again," I replied.

Her face became rather serious. "Am I correct in assuming that you desire answers of your body and powers?"

I nodded.

"I see," she replied. "In that case…Wielder of the Monado…boy from another world…there are…a few matters I must speak to you about."

BLAM!

Just then a giant ball of energy came flying out of nowhere and struck Nemesis, knocking it and her pilot into the rock pillar.

"What the hell?!" I exclaimed, shocked.

"Fiora!" Shulk yelled.

"Where did that come from?!" Reyn yelled.

We turned behind us in the direction the attack had come from. We saw another faced Mechon headed straight for us. It performed a somersault and transformed from jet mode to battle mode and landed right in next to Nemesis.

Immediately I recognized the frame. It was this Mechon that had fired at Fiora.

It was Metal Face.

"You!" I shouted with anger.

"Metal Face!" Shulk yelled right after me, grabbing the Monado off his back.

"Stay alert!"

"You…" Melia muttered with rage in her voice. "You killed our father!"

"What?!" Tyrea yelled shocked. "This is the monstrosity that felled the Emperor?!"

"Get him!" Reyn shouted.

We all started to charge at Metal Face with Shulk and I in the lead. "Get away from her!" He shouted.

"Now, now," Metal Face said as he placed his right claw on Nemesis, his mechanical voice calmly echoed through the mountains. "Let's all calm down. If I slip, I might…mess up her hair."

That was clearly a taunt to get us riled up. And it was working.

"Jackass!" I shouted.

"You're disgusting!" Melia yelled furiously.

"It…spoke…?" That was all Tyrea could say. Clearly she had never seen a Faced Mechon before let alone hear one talk. This was probably a lot for her to take in all at once.

Metal Face turned his eyes on Shulk. "Would you be so kind and hand over that dangerous toy you have?"

"You want the Monado so badly?" I challenged the mechanical monster. "Why don't you come and take it?"

"Ah, the boy in blue," Metal Face said, looking at me. "What an awful surprise to see you again."

"The feeling is mutual," I replied.

"Well, as much as I'd like to accept your challenge," he said. "I'm afraid I'll have to take a rain check. Don't get me wrong, I could very easily take it after I smash you all to a pulp, but we wouldn't want that, would we? Besides, with you around, I'm not taking any chances."

"That's the wisest thing I've heard you say so far," I said, igniting my arms and legs, getting ready to attack. But I was stopped by Shulk who moved his arm in front of me.

"Alright," he said as he deactivated the Monado. "You can have it. But only if you let her go."

"Uh, Shulk?" I said, not sure if this was the best idea. "You sure about this?"

"I am," he replied, placing the Monado upside down in the snow. "Besides, there's no way he'll be able to control it."

"That's not what I meant," I corrected. "Typically guys like this don't exactly have the best rep when it comes to negotiations."

"What do you mean?" Shulk asked me.

"I mean that Metal Face…or whoever's piloting him…probably isn't gonna keep his promise."

"You think there's a Homs inside this one too?" Tyrea asked me.

"There's a good boy," Metal Face said with a grin. "Always eager to please, Shulk."

Metal Face's chest then began to open up.

"I've got a feeling we're about to find out," I answered Tyrea.

And sure enough, there was a Homs inside. It was a man with brown sleeked back hair and a beard wearing black and gold Mechon armor.

"But you're-!" Dunban suddenly exclaimed.

"How's it going, Dunban?" the man said with a wicked grin. He then jumped out of Metal Face's cockpit and walked towards us, taking the Monado in his hand and slinging it over his right shoulder.

"Um, okay, little lost here," I said. "Dunban do you know this guy?"

Dunban nodded. "Mumkhar."

"Wait, what?!" I said, shocked. "You mean your old war buddy?"

Mumkhar was one of Dunban's best friends during the Mechon war one year ago in this world's time, along with Dickson. The three of them were an unstoppable force against the Mechon. But at the battle of Sword Valley, Mumkhar turned his back on his comrades and left Dunban and Dickson for dead as he tried to escape. No one ever saw him afterwards. Dunban and Dickson where the only ones who returned from the battle, so everyone in Colony 9 presumed Mumkhar died. And yet here he was standing in front of us with a new Mechon body.

"Yes," Dunban replied to me. "I had a feeling it was him…but…" He turned his eyes to his former comrade. "You're to blame for all this?!"

Mumkhar walked right up to Dunban. "I can't tell how badly I've wanted this sword!" He said with joy in his voice. He then turned to Shulk. "Tell me, has this puny boy even figured out how it works yet?" He then grabbed Shulk by the collar of his sweater. Shulk tried to break free, but Mumkhar's hand was too strong.

"Hey!" I shouted, pointing my open hand at him. "You better put him down, asshole!"

Mumkhar just ignored me. "What are you willing to do?" he taunted Shulk. "Would you even kill a Homs to beat us?"

"You dare ask that of us?!" Dunban said angrily, pointing his sword at Mumkhar. "Why did you betray us to Mechonis? Why did you kill our friends at the colony?! Answer me!"

Mumkhar just gave an irritated look at Dunban. Then he grinned and threw Shulk into the snow on his back.

"You wanna know?" he jeered. "Because it's your home."

Dunban was furious now. He started to charge straight at Mumkhar. "You piece of-!"

"Dunban, wait!" I shouted.

No sooner that I said that, Metal Face started to move on it's own. No, Mumkhar was moving it. He was making motions with his arms and legs and Metal Face was mimicking him! Metal Face kicked Nemesis against the rock pillar and slammed it's right claw against the frame's face.

"Stay right where you are," Mumkhar addressed us calmly.

"How is that possible?!" Tyrea exclaimed.

"He's not even inside it!" Reyn shouted, just as shocked. "How can it move on it's own?!"

"If I had to guess," I deduced. "Mumkhar's body is some kind of remote control."

Mumkhar grinned at me. "A clever boy you are. You're right; my Metal Face Mechon can be controlled by remote. So unless you want me to put a hole in her neck," he said as he extended a blade on Metal Face's left arm, placing in dangerously close to Fiora's neck. "I suggest you back off."

I only growled in response to that, which got a laugh out of Mumkhar. "I like that look on your face, boy. Nice and angry." He then turned to everyone else. "So what's it to be weaklings?" He taunted. "Will you grovel at me feet and beg?"

I then noticed that Melia was starting charge up ether in her right hand, which she held behind her back so Mumkhar couldn't see. Immediately I knew what she was going to do.

"Ty, get ready to fight," I whispered to Tyrea.

"What?"

"Just follow my lead." I then turned to Melia and whispered, "Let him have it, Mel."

She smirked and then yelled, "We will not bow to you!" She then fired Mind Blast at Mumkhar.

Poor bastard didn't even have time to react. Melia's attack took him completely by surprise. It struck him dead in the face, knocking the Monado out of his hand and into the air, allowing Shulk to catch it. The Mind Blast even managed to strike Metal Face in the back and caused it to topple over.

"Melly hit bad buy in face!" Riki exclaimed excitedly.

"Now, Ty!" I snapped my fingers and opened a Time Gate on the ground in front of Tyrea. Both of her weapons flew out blades first and sliced off the Bind Chains around her hands. Tyrea then jumped into the air, grabbed her weapons in her hand, performed a backflip, and landed back on her feet in her battle stance.

"My thanks," she said to me.

"Don't mention it," I replied with a smile.

(Cue One Who Gets In Out Way)

As Shulk casted Enchant on all of us, Mumkhar got up on his feet, rubbing his head and glaring at Melia. "You'll pay for that, princess!" He shouted as red laser claws shot out of his hands.

"Oh boy," I said, know that this was going to be tough.

"You're a traitor, Mumkhar!" Dunban shouted. "And you're not getting away!"

"Don't think that your better than me just because you have the Monado!" Mumkhar yelled as he charged at Dunban.

He and Dunban began to clash, sword against laser claws. Shulk ran up behind Mumkhar and attacked him with a Back Slash. It sent Mumkhar flying forward straight at me. I thrust my right hand forward using Death's Hand and struck Mumkhar dead in the face, sending him flying back a few feet. Mumkhar gave a furious glare at me and then jumped straight forward, twirling around like a screw driver.

"EAGLE SLICE!" he yelled, his attack headed right for me. But Shulk saw it coming a mile away.

"MONADO SPEED!" he yelled as he slammed the Monado into the ground, casting speed on me.

Immediately, I jumped out of the way of Mumkhar's attack, and he just flew right past me. This gave Sharla a chance to unload her riffle into Mumkhar's side, causing him to stagger a bit backwards.

"METAL BOLT!" Melia shouted firing bolts of electricity from her staff.

"GRRRRGHHHHRRRR!" Mumkhar grumbled as his body shook from the sudden power surge.

"GUILTY BULLET!" Tyrea yelled as she fired a ball of ether from the tip of one of her blades. It struck Mumkhar dead in the chest and made him stagger back even more. He just growled and launched himself at the two sisters. Tyrea flew forward with her wings and her blades met Mumkhar's claws, followed by a wild clash of blades against the two. After a bit, the two locked their weapons in a power struggle, each seeking to gain the upper hand. Melia took this chance to attack Mumkhar's side, which was wide open.

"SPEAR BREAK!" she yelled, ramming the tip of her spear into Mumkhar's left side.

"RRGH!" Mumkhar growled in irritation as he was pushed aside from Tyrea.

"STARLIGHT KICK!" Melia ran up to Mumkhar and launched herself at him, striking his chest with her left foot. The impact actually managed to topple Mumkhar onto his back, however Melia lost her balance in the middle of her jump and ended up landing in the snow flat on her rump. "Oww…" she muttered.

Tyrea gave me a look of confusion. "Somehow I have a feeling you had something to with that."

I just sighed. "Yeah, guess I'm starting to have an influence on her. Not really sure if that's good or bad. We really need to work on her form for that."

"You little brat!" Mumkhar yelled, as he got back on his feet and charged at Melia.

"Oh, right," I said, coming back to reality. "Battle."

I dived straight for Melia an grabbed her out of Mumkhar's reach, shouting "Yoink!" as I did. Just in time too, because he was just about to slash her. He ended up slashing my jacket…again.

"Oh come on!" I yelled, looking at the damage. "Again?! Really?!"

Melia just chuckled at my reaction. "You really need to stop snatching me like that then," she said.

I looked back at Melia with a smile on my face. "Wouldn't be a good bodyguard if I didn't."

"ENGAAAAAAGE!" I heard Reyn yell. Mumkhar turned and focused his sights on the defense force soldier, who was charging right at him. Mumkhar grinned wickedly and performed another Eagle Slice straight at Reyn. "SHEILD BASH!" Reyn thrusted the shield of his Scrap Driver forward to block Mumkhar's attack. This caused the Hugh Jackman reject to stop in the middle of his dash and stumble a bit. "BONE UPPER!" Reyn threw an uppercut punch that launched both him and Mumkhar up into the air.

Shulk then jumped up in the air with them. "AIR SLASH!" Shulk made an uppercut slash at Mumkhar's side, making him grunt a bit.

"DIVE SABBOT!" Reyn performed an axe kick and brought Mumkhar face first into the snow. Shulk and Reyn landed right next to each other, and high fived.

Mumkhar got up to his feet, which were sparking up pretty badly. It didn't look like he was able to move. Or at least not move as fast as he normally could. Mumkhar turned a furious gaze at us and bared his teeth. "I'm getting real tired of you lot!" he shouted as he ignited his claws in fire. We all got in a defensive stance, ready for him to strike. Mumkhar eyed us back and forth, like he was picking his target. Whatever attack he was about to do, it was probably going to have a very narrow range. His eyes rested on Sharla, and then he grinned. Immediately I knew what he was doing. He was going for the person who had the least strongest defense. "FIREY PAIN!" Mumkhar made a cross slash with his claws and fired a shockwave of fire in the shape of an X at Sharla.

"Shit!" I yelled. It happened to fast for me to react and for Shulk to use Monado Shield. Sharla was going to get hit!

Suddenly, Tyrea dashed in front of Sharla and used her body as a shield against the attack. Her body became engulfed in fire and she screamed in pain.

"Sister!" Melia shouted in terror.

Sharla aimed her riffle at Tyrea. "CURE BULLET!" she yelled and fired her riffle at Tyrea. Immediately the flames on Tyrea's body were extinguished.

Tyrea turned a shocked look to Sharla. "Thank you," she said.

"I should be the one telling you that," Sharla said with a smile.

While that was going on, Riki dashed up to Mumkhar's left side. "Bad guy hurt Melly's sister, Ty Ty! SAY SORRY!" Riki whacked Mumkhar in his side while he was distracted by the scene before him. Surprisingly enough, this caused him to stagger back a bit. His legs seemed to be working again, but his left side looked pretty bad.

"Damn furball!" Mumkhar yelled as he charged at Riki.

I charged right behind Mumkhar, grabbed his right shoulder, spun him around and whacked him in the face. Mumkhar grabbed his jaw and growled at me. There was a trickle of blood coming out of his mouth. "SHADOW SPIKE!" I yelled, digging my hand into the ground, letting my arm grow beneath the snow into dark spikes that shot from the ground. Mumkhar however was not about to fall for that again. He back flipped out of the way of the spikes as they appeared. He then dashed at me with his claws stretched outward, trying to strike the spikes and destroy my arm. I immediately retracted the spikes and formed my arm again, but Mumkhar was still coming at me with his claws. I parried them away from me with my arms, and we engaged in a clash. Mumkhar furiously swiped his claws at me, but I blocked every single blow. Eventually I grabbed both of his claws and struggled against him, trying to push him over. Mumkhar, getting fed up with pretty much all of us, slammed his foot into mine. The pain I received was minimal but it distracted me enough for him to push me away with his claws, and then gave me an upper slash to my torso. That hurt a lot worse then my foot. I yelled in pain and fell into the snow on my back.

"Andrew!" both Tyrea and Melia cried out.

"I'm good!" I said as my wound started to regenerate.

"MUMKHAAAAARRR!" Dunban yelled, as he rushed right at Mumkhar, wildly slashing his sword against the Mechon warrior's claws. "You fought beside me! At Sword Valley! Why did you change sides?! Why the Mechon?!" Dunban ranted on furiously as he slashed.

"You're as blind as you were then!" Mumkhar shouted in response. "I've wanted you dead for years!"

Just then, the ground beneath us started to shake.

"What's happening?!" Shulk said, completely taken by surprise.

"Is the Bionis moving?!" Reyn asked.

"I wanted to get the Monado so I could be the new hero!" Mumkhar continued to rant.

At hearing that, I got completely mad. I got off of my back and threw another Death's Hand at Mumkhar. He saw it coming from the corner of his eye and blocked it. I wasn't going to let that stop me. I kept moving forward and joined Dunban in the clash. "That's it?!" I yelled angrily. "That's the pure reason you killed all those innocent people at the colony?!" I ducked a blow from one of Mumkhar's claws and struck him in the face with my right foot. "Ravaged Shulk and his friends home?!"

Mumkhar just laughed. "I love this body! The power!" Mumkhar then charged at us once again.

Dunban and I stood back to back. He twirled his sword, holding it in reverse grip. We both charged at Mumkhar, I with my left arm and fingers extended outward, like some kind of blade. Dunban and I dashed right past Mumkhar, striking him in his arms. Mumkhar grunted loudly and his arms began to spark up.

"Dunban, you'll never win!" Mumkhar shouted furiously. "Get on your knees and worship me!"

"Never," Dunban replied, with hate in his voice, pointing his sword at Mumkhar. "I will strike you down and all that you have become, you wretched fool. The Monado will stop you! And then you will know the shame of all that you have done, traitor!"

"Shut your mouth and come on!" Mumkhar yelled.

We were about to engage again when a light avalanche fell right on top of us. This was then followed by the sound of jet engines. Multiple ones.

"Hey Reyn?" I yelled over the noise. "In answer to your question, no, it's not the Bionis."

Just then a whole bunch of black pods crashed into the snow all around us.

"It's an army of Faced Mechon," I finished my answer.

The pods then transformed into battle mode. They were Xord Mechons. Then there was this bright light in the sky. Really bright.

"What's that light?" Shulk asked.

Another Faced Mechon descended from the light and touched down on the ground with a loud CLANG!

"What the?!" Dunban said with shock.

"That's not like the other Mechon!" Shulk exclaimed.

Shulk was right. This Mechon was way different than the Xords, Metal Face and Nemesis. It was gold and was at least twice the size of the any normal Faced Mechon.

"You are right, Heir to the Monado," the golden Mechon spoke. "This is the strongest Mechon ever built! Controlled by me, Egil! Leader of Mechonis! And agent of Meyneth!"

"The leader of Mechonis?" Shulk said surprised.

"So you're the head honcho of the Mechon, huh?" I said to the golden Mechon, calling himself Egil.

"Indeed," he replied. "I am he. We fight to free the world from the tyranny of the Bionis."

"Uh what?" was all I could say.

"Why?!" Shulk shouted furiously. "Why do you trap Homs in machines?! What do you want from us?! Why make us fight for you?!"

"Your questions do not concern me." Egil just ignored Shulk. "I must return with this one." He then lifted Nemesis up with…I dunno, some kind of telepathy, magnetism, I don't know what.

"Fiora!" Dunban yelled.

"Get your hands off her!" Shulk screamed desperately. "Fiora!"

"If you want her," Egil challenged. "Come and get her. You are more than welcome on Mechonis." He then flew away with Nemesis.

"Come and visit us anytime, Dunban!" Mumkhar's voice boomed from Metal Face. He must have climbed back into his Mechon when we weren't looking. He took off with the Xord Mechons and headed back for the Mechonis.

"Mumkhar!" Dunban yelled angrily.

"We're coming!" Shulk yelled as he chased after them. "And we won't give up!"

We all followed him, chasing the army of the Faces as the disappeared into the white backdrop. Egil looked behind his shoulder at us. "Find us, Monado," he said. "Sword of the Bionis. We will meet you on the battlefield."

"Fiora," Shulk called out to Nemesis. "We will find you!"

And with that the Mechon army disappeared from our sight. Shulk finally stopped running, out of breath between the fighting and the chasing. I ran up next to Shulk.

"Hey, man," I said to him. "You okay?"

"Fiora," he muttered under his breath, clearly upset. "She's…"

"Get it together, Shulk!" Reyn called from behind as he walked towards us. "We ain't got time to be hanging around here! I dunno what's happened to her, but that was Fiora. No doubt about it. You know what that means?! She ain't dead! We've gotta get her back!"

"Get her back…" Shulk said, starting to calm down a bit. He then looked up at Reyn with determination in his eyes. "Right! We've come too far to give up now!"

"Alrighty!" I said. "Then let's get to Mechonis, rescue Fiora, and trash some Mechon ass while we're at it!"

"Here, here!" Dunban agreed.

"Everyone," Alvis said, gaining our attention. I'll admit, I kinda forgot about him in the fight. "There is a tunnel up ahead. Just beyond there lies Sword Valley. The Mechon flew in the direction of Galahad Fortress. Fiora may very well be there. Will you pursue, Shulk?"

"Yes," he answered. "We will get Fiora back."

"Alright," I said. "Before I forget; Ty, weapons."

Tyrea nodded and was about to had over her weapons to me when Sharla spoke up.

"Um, actually, Andrew?" she addressed me. "I…um…I was actually thinking…maybe we should officially make Tyrea apart of our team."

Tyrea's eyes widened. "R-really…? So soon?"

"Half an hour ago you didn't trust her," I said. "You sure?"

"She set herself on fire to protect me," Sharla said. "That takes a lot of courage to save someone you were trying to kill a few days ago."

"If pain is the punishment I must receive for my sins, then I gladly accept," Tyrea said. "I will endure whatever I must to Atone."

"Andrew," Reyn spoke up. "I agree with Sharla. Out of all the people to act as a body shield, she was the last person I expected to do that. And if she didn't Sharla would've been burnt to a crisp by now." He turned to Tyrea. "Oi, big wings! You're alright in my book now. You need help with bashing a monster or a Mechon's head in, give me a shout!"

"Your skills with a blade and Ether are quite exceptional," Dunban said. "And you fought very well at your sister's side."

"Ty Ty is Melly's sister" Riki spoke up. "Melly is Riki's friend! So Ty Ty also Riki's friend!"

"Well," Shulk said. "If everyone else is okay with it, then I am too."

I looked at Melia. "Well, Mel? She is your sister. You deserve a say too."

Melia just smiled. "I would love it if she could join us on this quest."

I smiled back and looked at Tyrea. "Well, Ty? How about it?"

Tyrea had a dumbfounded look on her face. And for the umpteenth time, she started to tear up. "But…I don't understand…this is so sudden…how can you just…trust me so easily…when all I did was just one selfless act…?"

"Ty," I spoke up. "In my world, we humans have many sayings. This is one of them. 'That path to peace is not paved with revenge. It is paved with forgiveness.' And from the unanimous agreement with everyone, I don't think I need to tell you guys what that means."

Everyone smiled at that. Tyrea started to cry softly. But I could tell that these weren't tears of sorrow. They were tears of joy. Melia walked over to her older sister and embraced her in a hug. "Sister…" she said happily.

"Melia…" Tyrea said through her tears, returning the hug. She then looked up at all of us. "Everyone…thank you…thank you so much…! I promise I will do my best to aid you all, and I will never ever forget your kindness!" She then turned to me. "Especially yours."

I smiled and walked over to her. "I know I said this earlier, but I think it's time we made it official." I offered my hand to her. "Welcome to the party, Tyrea."

Tyrea happily took it and gave it a firm shake. "It is an honor…no," she corrected herself. "It is a privilege."

AN: I hope that was a good chapter for you guys! STAY TUNNED!


	9. Chapter 7-Time To Get Equiped

AN: SIIIIIGGHHHHH. College is coming back to haunt me once more. Which means it's going to be ridiculously difficult for me to keep updating this series. Oh well, too bad professors, cause that's not gonna stop me! NEEEEEXT!

Chapter Seven-Time To Get Equipped

 _A weapon is an extension of the person's body, mind, and soul._

 _It is more than just a mere tool._

The warmth of the sunlight never felt so good! As we exited Valak Mountain through the Bionis' Thumb, I saw a clear blue sky and melting snow on the ground, and felt the warm rays of the sun instantly melt away the cold feeling all over my body.

"Aaaaaaahhhh, finally!" I shouted. "Mr. Sunshine, I have never missed you more in my entire life!" I paused a little after I said that. "That is the last time I say 'Mr. Sunshine.'"

"Does he really despise the cold that much?" I heard Tyrea ask her sister.

"You don't know that half of it," Melia replied.

"Whoa!" Reyn shouted all of a sudden. "What the?!"

We all turned to what Reyn was gawking at, and what we saw blew my mind ever further then it had already been blown. There before our eyes was a complicated structure of rust colored buildings and machines. The entire landscape was covered in them. This was the sword of the Mechonis; otherwise known as Sword Valley.

I whistled in amazement. "So that's Sword Valley, huh?"

"Is all that big sword?" Riki asked, just as dumbfounded as the rest of us (well except for Dunban, since he's been there before). "Oh, if is, then ouchy ouch!"

Ouchy ouch was right. There was a mural I saw back in the Great Hall at Alcomoth that depicted both the Bionis and the Mechonis' corpses. They were both standing still, the tip of the Mechonis' blade embedded in the Bionis' right waist. From where I was looking, that mural was correct. Part of the valley stretched all the way to the Bionis' waist. In fact, now that we were on the sword of the Mechonis, I could get a slightly better look at both the Bionis and the Mechonis. They were indeed titans, WAAAAAY bigger than the Empire State Building or the buildings that were once known as the World Trade Center. On the Bionis, there were a lot of green patches that were covering its body. From being in the Makna Forrest, even just for a little bit, I knew right away that all those other green spots were actually other forests. But from here, they looked like moss. Which meant that we were the size of bacteria compared to the Bionis.

As for the Mechonis, the only think I could see clearly was its head. It was black and covered with rust, with a whole bunch of tiny red lights glowing in the distance. They almost looked like the Mechonis' eyes. And as I stared at it, I felt like it was staring back at us; almost like it knew we were coming. Actually, now that I got a better look at the titans, they looked exactly like the two giants I saw in the image of the sphere that lead me to this world.

" _So, this world really is made up of just two titans and an endless sea,"_ I thought. _"I never imagined that just two landmasses could be so huge."_

"The sword of the Mechonis," Dunban introduced to everyone.

"The entire valley below…" Sharla said with awe in her voice. "The whole thing is its sword!"

"Incredible…" Tyrea commented. "I've heard stories about what the sword of the Mechonis was liked, but not once in my life did I think I would actually be gazing upon it, much less travel to it."

"Something seems unnatural," Shulk thought out loud.

"What do you mean by that?" I asked him.

"Take a look at that," he answered as he pointed to the valley. "That flowing light."

We all looked to where Shulk was pointing, and sure enough, on the various structures of the sword, there was a pulsating glowing green light coursing through the valley.

"From the way it glows, it has to ether," observed Shulk. "But it looks like it's being drawn in by something."

Shulk was right. The ether did look like it was going from somewhere to somewhere.

"From the direction it's flowing," I said. "It's probably coming from the Bionis. And it's being gathered all the way over there." I pointed in the distance off to our right. "Whatever's there is what's gathering all the ether."

"The fortress!" Dunban deduced. "So that's where it must be."

"Your observation skills are amazing, Andrew," Melia said to me. "And I think you might be on to something."

"I agree," Tyrea added.

I turned to face to two of them. "On to something?" I repated.

Tyrea nodded. "Father once told us that the Mechonis absorbs the ether of the Bionis and uses it for sustenance."

"So the Mechonis feeds off ether," Dunban pondered. "Then undoubtedly the ether serves as the Mechons energy source as well."

"Y'know, it just occurred to me," I said. "That green ether flow…the golden Faced Mechon hat that too."

Everyone turned to look at me. "What about it?" Dunban asked. "Is it important?"

"Probably," I answered. "That guy, Egil did he call himself? His Mechon was different from the other Faces in more than just size. From what we've seen on the lesser Faces, they all had a red glow pulsing through them."

"Wait, you're right!" Shulk exclaimed. "But…what does that mean…?"

"I think I might have figured it out," I answered. "That red glow might actually be the blood of the Homs that's piloting the Faced Mechon circulating through its structure. That must be the main fuel source of the regular Faced Mechons, in addition to ether."

"Wait," Sharla inputted. "I think your hypothesis might be correct. Back when Xord attacked us and captured Juju, the red glow on his Mechon started to dim and turned green. That must've meant that the pilot was running low on blood."

"That would explain why he just ran off all of a sudden," Shulk said.

"Yeah," Reyn agreed. "Can't push yourself too much without a proper blood flow."

"So, if the lesser Faces are powered by both ether and Homs blood, why was the golden Mechon's glow green?" Tyrea wondered.

"If I had to guess, probably because its fuel source is purely ether," I concluded.

"But…hold on," Sharla pondered on what I said. "There's no Homs that I know of that has just ether in their bodies. So…whoever this…Egil person is…"

"It's possible that he isn't a Homs…" Dunban deduced.

We all just stood in silence after that, trying process this.

"This is getting…complicated," Shulk said. "If we aren't just dealing with Homs piloting Mechons here…"

"Then there's more to this battle than meets the eye," Melia finished. "Andrew told me the exact same thing when he observed that Fiora had no intention of attacking us on Prison Island."

"Speaking of whom," I added. "We still don't know what she wanted to talk to Shulk and I about. I'm pretty sure had something to do with the truth of this whole thing, but what it has to do with the Monado, or me for that matter, is anyone's guess."

"Well we won't get our answers just standing here," Dunban said, moving forward. "Those most likely lie in Galahad Fortress. If we're lucky, Fiora will be there. Once we've rescued her, we'll hear her story."

"What if unlucky?" Riki asked us curiously.

"Well, chances are more then likely that we'll run into Mumkhar again," I said. "So, yeah there's that."

"Let's make sure that's the last time he gets in our way," Reyn said, bashing his fists together.

"Hoorah," I agreed.

We all walked on for about twenty to fifty feet, then stopped when we saw a giant sphere with spikes coming out of the top in the distance.

"I assume that's Galahad Fortress?" I asked Alvis.

"Indeed," he confirmed.

"It looks so big, even from this distance," Melia said in awe.

"The fortress must be enormous," Tyrea added.

"Galahad Fortress, the front line base of the Mechon," said Dunban. "The Mechon that attacked Bionis must all come from there."

"Then there's a high probability that he's there," said Shulk. "The golden Mechon that took Fiora." Shulk then turned to face all of us with a serious look on his face. "We're about to enter the Mechon stronghold. If…if there's anyone who wants to turn back now…"

Riki then walked up to Shulk and flapped his paws, making him float in the air for a bit. "Shulk," he said. "Friend should no split up. No leave friend behind. Riki scared, but…Riki want go too."

"Riki…" Shulk couldn't help but smile over the Heropon's response.

"I agree," Tyrea said. "I have already agreed to participate in your quest. I'll be damned if I turn back out of cowardice."

"Same here," I added. "I'm with ya till the end, buddy."

Shulk just smiled at our responses. "Okay then," he said. "Let's go."

…

After a few minutes of climbing down the last hill on the Bionis' Thumb we finally reached the ground level of the valley. But there was something waiting for us. Something that for once, didn't want to kill us. At the bottom of the hill were some large vehicles. I immediately recognized a few High Entia transport pods, along with some vehicles I hadn't seen before. They appeared to be some type of hover craft that had the bulk of a tank and was less agile than a Pod or a Havre. It looked like it could transport a small platoon of people. I assumed it was a Homs vehicle.

"What's that," Reyn asked, taking notice of the sight before us.

"A supply convoy," Alvis answered. "It would be most unwise to proceed without restocking our supplies."

"You arranged this for us?" asked Shulk, surprise in his voice.

Alvis nodded in response.

It was then that I noticed a group of Homs standing around the convoy. Most of them were wearing battle armor, but there was one person in particular that stood out from the rest. It was a man wearing white cowboy like boots and white jeans, a dark blue and grey vest, brown gloved with openings for the fingers to be shown, long dirty blond hair that was braided into a pony tail, and a red bandana tied around his forehead. His back was turned to us, as he was talking to the soldiers.

"Hey," I spoke up. "Who's that?"

Everyone turned to look at who I was asking about. Reyn and Shulk seemed to immediately recognize the guy.

"Hey, it's…!" Reyn started.

"Dickson!" Shulk exclaimed, excitedly as he dashed off to meet the man.

" _That guy?"_ I thought as the rest of us followed pursuit. _"From his apparel alone, that's not what I expected Shulk's father figure to look like."_

Dickson must've heard the our foot steps, as he turned around and greeted us with a huge smile as we approached him. I got a good look at his face now. He had a blonde moustache that was just as dirty as his hair, and his teeth were a pretty dull yellow. Clearly this guy was a smoker.

"Looks like you lot have been having fun with out me," he said jokingly in an accent that sounded like a mix between British and southern. "Heard you took care of that faced Mechon."

"What are you doing here?" Dunban inquired his old war buddy.

"I got wind of some allied force coming together a few days back," replied Dickson. "I stepped up as the representative of the Homs in Colony 9. Then a little birdie told me that you lot were heading for Galahad Fortress. So I thought I'd drop by and say hello."

"I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume that you're talking about Kalian," I decided to quip.

Dickson then turned a curious glance at me. "That's some unusual garb you've got there, boy," he addressed me. "You must be the new arrival that the prince told me about. Andrew, was it?"

I raised an eyebrow at this. "He told you about me?"

"More like bragged about you," he chuckled. "You've actually been quite the talk of Alcomoth as of late. What with you falling from the sky stark naked and all."

"Ugh," I groaned, remembering that fiasco. "Please don't remind me."

Everyone got a nice laugh out of that. I couldn't help but notice that Melia was blushing faintly at the mention of my nudity that day. Tyrea on the other hand seemed to be eyeing my body with a bit of a sly smirk. Once again I cursed my hormones.

"Anyways," Dickson continued. "Kalian wanted me to check up on how you and Melia were. You've been keeping her safe, right?"

"What, doesn't he trust me?" I quipped once again with a smile. "That hurts, dude. Heh, but yeah joking aside, I've been busting my butt to make sure that she doesn't get a scratch."

Dickson smiled back at me. "I like your attitude, boy. Got a feeling we'll get along just fine. Good to meet you."

"Likewise."

The two of us shook hands and chuckled for a bit.

"Oh right, almost forgot," Dickson added. "Kalian said that he heard a few eyewitnesses say a High Entia wearing a black and red comeback outfit took off flying after the pod that you lot left in."

I heard Tyrea gasp in fear at that. I turned to see that he had her hand over her mouth, eyes wide, and her wings flared back.

"I'm guessing that's her then?" Dickson asked looking at her. "You wouldn't happen to be Tyrea Antiqua, would you?"

"U-umm…uh…well…see, here's the thing," I tried to speak in Tyrea's defense.

"It's alright, Andrew," she suddenly said. "I will not hide from this." Tyrea then walked forward to Dickson. "Indeed I am."

"Ah, so he was right," Dickson, replied. "Kalian told me what had happened in the Tomb, and ever since then the Ministry of Investigation have had their ears pressed tightly to any rumors about the Bionite Order that go spreading around. Lorithia came to the Prince with information regarding that one of their prized members had yet to return from her duty. And Kalian hadn't seen his step sister in some time, so naturally he drew the conclusion that it was you."

Tyrea gave a sad smile. "I should have known something like this would happen."

"Care to tell me what you're doing with this lot?"

"Sister, don't!" Melia exclaimed.

"No, Melia," Tyrea replied. "I must face the consequences for my actions. Please do not try to stop me."

And then Tyrea told Dickson everything. About her desire for revenge, her encounter with me, and her change of heart.

"Hmm," Dickson pondered. "That's quite the story there." He sighed. "Well, Kalian won't like to hear that you tried to take your kin's life twice in a row but-"

"Now hold on there, Dickson," Dunban suddenly interjected. "While it is true that Tyrea's intentions were foul at the beginning, she has demonstrated to us her unshakable oath to atone for what she has done."

"Yeah!" Reyn agreed. "What's done is done. She's one of us now!"

"Riki fight with Ty Ty and Melly to bitter end!" I'm pretty sure it's obvious who said that.

"Whoa, easy there," Dickson said with his hands up. "I never said I was taking her back. I was just about to say that seeing as how she seems to be fitting in with you fairly well, her intentions must be pure."

"Y-you mean…" Tyrea said, shocked once again.

Dickson grinned. "Ay. I'll let the prince know that you've put all grievances behind and have teamed up for the greater good. Now, that I'm sure Kalian will be proud of you for, to hear that you and your sister have found common ground for such a long time."

Tyrea breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Dickson. I now know that my opinion of Homs was biased and flawed."

"Ah, pay it no mind," he replied waving her off. "We all fall down at some point. What matters is how we get back up. Your brother has had a lot of experience with that, I assure you."

Melia gave Dickson a curious glance. "You speak as though you know my brother personally,"

"Yeah," he replied. "I've known Kalian for quite some time now. Nice bloke, looking out for his family ever so diligently. He's taking his role as Regent quite well."

Melia smiled. "That is good to hear."

"Anyways," Dunban changed the topic. "I've got a whole stack of new equipment. Want some?"

"Yeah! Reyn exclaimed. "I was hoping for some new stuff!"

"Hold it, Reyn," Dickson cut off. "You know it's gonna cost you?"

"You cheap old man," Dunban said with a smile.

Dickson merely waved the comment of with a look that said, "yeah, yeah, I've heard it all before."

…

We all entered the Colony 9 armored transports to see what the old man had in store for us. Dickson's wares were quite impressive to say the least. I had learned from the others that he was a weapon craftsman in Colony 9 and Shulk was studying under his wing. However I never imagined that the stuff that he made was so friggin' high quality! All of the weapons he had in store for us were designed with Mechon armor. He called them Anti-Mechon weapons, capable of cutting down Mechon with out the use of the Monado. Though not as strong as the Monado, they would at least give the people who wielded regular weapons a fighting chance against the Mechon.

There was one weapon in particular that really caught my eye. Hanging lengthwise on the interior walls was a massive sword in the form of a slab of raw iron that only had a single blade on its bottom, its size about as tall as me. Its color was a dull grey and looked kinda worn. At the front of the blade was a large circular hole, big enough for a large projectile to be shot out of and the blade extended out below the muzzle just a bit, acting as a type of built-in bayonet. As for the handle, it was brown and wooden, looked like mahogany. There was a trigger near the hilt and a switch to open it up, probably to reload more ammo. In short, this weapon was a mix between a large broad sword and a shotgun. A perfect mix of melee and ranged combat. And it was the most beautiful weapon I have ever seen. I had a thing for large swords. Comes from playing a lot JRPG's back in my world.

"You've got a keen eye there," Dickson said as he approached me. He must've caught me eyeing the sword. "That there is a replica of the Sabre I used one year ago in the war."

I looked over at Dickson with a surprised expression. "You used this?" I said in disbelief. "How? I mean…it looks pretty heavy, how do you lift it? Or even fire it with both hands?"

"Well," he replied. "I actually fire it with one hand. Using two hands is a little awkward when I need to pull the trigger. I just use two hands when I need to cut something down."

I just stared dumbfounded.

"Oi, I may look old, but I've still got some muscle. After all, I did survive that war with The Beast." He chuckled as he spoke his nickname for Dunban.

Indeed I was surprised. You wouldn't expect a weapon craftsman to be a skilled swordsman as well.

"Jesus…" was all I could say, as I turned back to ogle his saber.

"I can tell that you really like that," Dickson said as he saw the glimmer in my eyes.

"Well," I said. "Yeah…I mean, I've never seen a weapon like this before, not even in my world."

Dickson put his hand on my shoulder. "Take it then."

"What…?"

"I've heard from Dunban about your fighting style. Pretty impressive from what I hear, but bashing your knuckles up against Mechon metal can't be a pleasant feeling."

He had a point. Though the dark flames around my hands and legs did soften the impact of my attacks, they still hurt my hands. Not too much, but it did get irritating at times.

"Yeah, kinda…" I replied. "And seeing as how everyone else has got one, I guess I do feel a bit left out."

Dickson then walked over to the saber, grabbed it, and handed it to me with the blade pointed downwards. "Here, on the house."

Once again, I was dumbstruck, this time by Dickson's generosity. "U-uhh…are you sure…? I mean…this is your weapon…"

"Eh, it's only a replica. I've still got my original and it's just as good as this one. Of course, mine's not reinforced with Mechon metal like this one is, but it still works wonders for me."

I still just stared at the sword. This was by far the best gift anyone had ever given me. I slowly grabbed the handle and took it in my grasp, feeling the weight of the blade. Which, for some reason didn't feel nearly as heavy as I thought it would. It felt…light…light enough for me to maneuver with one hand…but powerful at the same time. Immediately I decided to take my new "toy" out of the transport and give it a spin. Getting to a space that was open in front of the convoy, I gave the saber a few swings. My arm moved fast and fluid as the saber cut through the air, as though I were swinging a large feather around. I spun my body around as I focused my strength through my right arm and into the blade, ending with a wide vertical swing.

"YAHH!" I spun the saber in hand by the handle with my arm extended outward, clockwise with the blade pointing up.

"HAAHH!" Then counter clockwise with the blade pointing down. Then I gripped my weapon backhand, reversing the blade again.

"GYYYAAAAHH!" With a mighty swing I swung the blade upwards, scraping up some dirt, and launching leedle myself high in the air, higher than anyone could jump. While still in mid air I put my sword back in normal grip.

"RRRGHH!" With the blade pointed downwards, I swung hard with my right arm and sent both my saber and I rocketing to the ground. I landed with a loud THUD, and the saber struck the ground with at loud BANG!

This weapon was perfect for me.

I heard clapping behind me. Apparently I had drawn in an audience, for when I turned around, I saw Dickson and the defense soldiers applauding me for the spectacle I performed. Shulk and the others had seen me too, and they were awestruck to say the least.

"Now that was awesome!" Reyn called out.

"Andrew, when did you learn to do that?" Melia asked, completely astounded.

"Uhh…well," I said scratching my head. "I've played a lot of video games that involves a guy carrying a giant sword. And I've always fantasized about having one of my own and going on a grand adventure like this. So I would some times practice on my own with a toy sword, creating my own moves and mimicking others I saw in video games."

"Video…games…?" Melia asked me, puzzled.

Oh right. Probably didn't have those in this world. "I'll explain later," I simply said.

"Dickson," Dunban addressed his old friend. "Isn't that the replica of your weapon you worked so hard on?"

"Aye," he replied. "I figured it'd be a nice welcoming gift from me to the otherworldly new comer. Gotta say though, he must be pretty strong if he's able to swing it around with only one hand."

I was pretty sure that was because my body had a lot of stamina and strength stored inside me. When I was swinging that sword around, I felt like I could go on for hours and never get tired.

…

No innuendo intended…yet. Seriously readers, get your minds out of the gutter.

"Oh, almost forgot," Dickson continued. "You're gonna need some ammo for that."

"Nah," I said with an idea in mind. With one hand I pointed my saber to a piece of Mechon debris lying a short distance away. I channeled energy from my body, through my arm and into the chamber. I pulled the trigger and BA-CLANG BA-CLANG BA-CLANG! Small dark purple projectiles shot out with little to no recoil and penetrated the debris. I then put more energy into the chamber, creating a massive dark purple orb, similar to my Chaos Shot. I pulled the trigger, and BA-CLONG! The recoil was strong but not too strong to make me stagger. The large projectile flew forward in a flash and obliterated the debris with a BOOM and a brilliant purple explosion. "I think I've got that covered."

Dickson whistled. Everyone else's jaws just dropped.

"So," Dickson said to me. "You like it?"

I turned to him with a wide smile. "I love it!" I said as I slung the saber over my shoulder.

Dickson chuckled. "Then I'm glad I gave it to you."

"Quick question though," I asked. "How do I…y'know, put this on my back without anything to attack it too."

"Just slide it on your back and it will stick to you like a very strong magnet," Dickson said.

I raised an eyebrow. "That's it?" I asked, questioning how the physics of that worked.

"That's it," he replied.

I shrugged. "Simple enough I guess." Just like Cloud Strife does, I swung the blade around in my hand, and sheathed it on my back. Sure enough, it stuck like a magnet. Just like Dickson said it would. I could feel it's weight on my back, but like it was in my hand, it still felt rather light.

Dickson grinned at me. "Now that's a good look for you."

"Thanks," I said smiling as I offered my hand. Dickson took it and gave it a firm shake.

"Take good care of it now," he said.

"Oh you bet I will," I replied excited. There was no way I was ever going to part with this badass mofo anytime soon.

…

Melia and Tyrea were speechless. After they saw Andrew perform all those vicious slashes and shots, they became more in awe of him. Ordinary Mechon would never stand a chance against him and his might. They were actually quite envious of the strength that he had. The sisters secretly wished they could pull off some of the feats that Andrew did. Actually, they wished they could be just like him, always following his heart, doing what he believes is the right course of action, showing mercy and grace, kindness and compassion.

" _Knowing him,"_ Melia thought, _"he would tell us that I'm fine the way I am, and tell me of the things I can do that he cannot."_

" _Never in my life would I have ever thought I'd meet such an individual as him,"_ Tyrea thought. _"A man with a clear conscience as his. I don't think I will ever be able to repay him for all that he's done for me."_ Tyrea then noticed Melia's eyes mooning over Andrew with a faint blush on her cheeks. "Tell me sister," she said. "Do you have feelings for him?"

Melia's wings suddenly shot up and her entire face turned red. "W-what?!"

"Andrew. Do you have feelings for him?"

Melia was struggling mentally for a response and just stammered, " I, I, I,…that's…he's…we're just…I'm not…"

"Don't be shy, sister," Tyrea said calmly. "Be honest with yourself. Things will be much simpler if you are."

"I'm…I'm…just…" Melia then sighed, seeing there was no way she could argue with her sister's words.

"Have the two of you kissed?" Tyrea asked.

Melia then remembered that one time in the Hollow Bone where they did almost make contact with their lips. Just thinking about it made both her wings and her heart flutter. "No," she said sadly.

"So you are in love with him," Tyrea said, reading her sister's face like an open book.

Melia meekly nodded and softly responded, "Yes…"

"I see," Tyrea replied as he looked over to the boy they both had on their minds. "Then I suppose…that makes two of us…"

Melia turned to her sister in surprise. "Tyrea…you…?"

"Yes," she replied. "Forgive me, but I have started to develop feelings for him too." It was now Tyrea's turn to turn a deep red and have both her wings and heart flutter.

Melia was still quite shocked by this revelation. "Why? When?"

"I believe, it was around the time we were in the magma cave," Tyrea replied. "Ever since he started to show me such gentleman-like kindness to me, I've felt this strange tugging sensation in my heart. I never once thought there would exist such a person as him, albeit he is from a different world. He has experienced pain far worse than I, and he desires to regain what he has lost. And after witnessing his compassion towards everyone, his reason for fighting, and his determination…I now know what I was felling." Tyrea placed her hand on her heart. "I...have fallen for him…"

Melia was stilly mentally trying to process this. "Sister…in such a short time…?"

"Yes, I know…absurd is it not…? But there is something that Andrew said to me when we met. 'It's hard to argue with your heart.' I don't think any truer words have ever been spoken."

Melia then turned her gaze back at Andrew. "Yes…" she replied, once again finding it hard to argue with her sister's logic. "I suppose your right…"

Tyrea then formed a sly smile on her face, a thought just popped into her head. "You know, he makes a really cute face when he's embarrassed, and he's also incredibly fun to tease."

Melia just raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean by that?"

Tyrea then put somewhat of a troubled look on her face. "Pray tell me that Mother and Father educated you on the Turkens and the Skeeters."

Melia, all of a sudden realizing what Tyrea was getting at, turned a bright shade of chrimson. "S-sister! M-must we really talk about such sh-sh-sh-shameful thing?!"

"That does not answer my question," Tyrea deadpanned the embarrassed princess.

"O-of course Mother and Father educated me on…on…r-reproduction," replied Melia, rather meekly.

"The easier way phrase it is just 'sex' you know," Tyrea stated nonchalantly.

"Y-y-yes…I know that…but…I don't have any…knowledge…on…a-a-a-arousal…"

Tyrea looked at her sister, a bit worried. The First Consort was the person who started teaching about this sort of thing. However, after she died of illness, the lessons just stopped. Yumea didn't see the reason to continue them, since she was planning to have her killed later on, and Sorean was too busy with his imperial duties. As for Kalian…he felt it wasn't his place to do this. Yumea really only continued teach the act of sexuality to Tyrea, although Lorithia was the one who spoke the most of the arousal part, what with her physique and all.

"Well then," Tyrea spoke up after a few seconds. "I will have to fix that." She took Melia by the arm and led her back into the vehicle. Unlike the hovercraft in where Andrew grabbed his now beloved saber, this particular hovercraft carried battle armor. And Tyrea had the perfect one for Melia.

"Here," she said pointing to a certain set of clothing hanging on the interior walls. "I think this would be perfect to draw his attention to you."

"Th-This?!" Melia exclaimed, extremely embarrassed at what she was seeing. The outfit in question did not leave much to the imagination. "I-I-I cannot-!" Melia wasn't able to finish her sentence, for Tyrea had already yanked off the clothes and tossed them to Melia.

"Don't argue, sister," Tyrea insisted. "You want to win Andrew over? Charm only goes so far. You must be honest with your mind, soul, and especially your body. Besides, you can't honestly tell me you plan to fight the rest of the way to the Mechonis in that?" She pointed to the imperial dress that Melia had been wearing for a while now. It was quite dirtied from the snow and the scuffles they had with the various monsters and Mumkhar.

"W-well…I s-s-suppose I do require…a change in clothing…this dress is awfully difficult to move in, especially in battle. But…does it really have to be something like this…?"

"Aren't you at all curious as to how he will react?"

Melia stopped after hearing that. It was true; there was a small side of her that was curious to how Andrew would react to her wearing this certain out fit. Would he like it? She had absolutely no clue how the mind of a male Homs worked, much less a human one. But if humans shared the exact same physical features as Homs, then perhaps the minds of genders were similar too.

"I…well…I suppose I am…a bit…interested…" Melia stated. "But…hold on, why are you helping me? I thought you loved him too?"

"I do," Tyrea replied. "But remember, all emperors must take two wives."

"Well, yes, but there is no emperor not anymore. There's just me."

"Well, if you marry Andrew, then he will be an emperor."

"M-Marriage?!" Melia's face was a hot red at this point, she was practically steaming with embarrassment. "Th-that's a little too early to be thinking about, I…I mean…I don't even know if he _wants_ to be emperor! He's from another world, he has his own problems! Our world is of no concern to him!"

"And yet, here he stays. For now, at least. And that's because he was banished from his world. Banished by his god."

Melia just looked at her confused. "How do you…did he tell you something…?"

Tyrea nodded. "His past…his oh so terrible fate…Melia he has endured pain worse than you can ever imagine…he is lost…and has lost so much… yet he is searching for a way to go back to his home and re-claim what he has lost. But at the same time he does not wish to leave this world…to leave you and your companions…he feels obligated, always willing to do the right thing…which is what makes him the man that he is."

Melia was currently trying to contemplate what sort of "terrible fate" could have befallen the otherworldly boy. "But…why did he tell you and not me…?"

"I believe it was because of two reasons," Tyrea replied. "One, he probably didn't deem it necessary. And two, because he doesn't want to see you worry."

Melia thought about this for a few moments. "It's…hard for me not to worry about him. Even with that body of his…he can still feel pain. Pain in his heart. I've seen him upset once…I never wish to see him like that again…his smile…his laugh…his voice…his spirit…I never wish to see any of that broken…"

Tyrea nodded. "I wish the same." She then turned her eyes to an azure clad set of armor that caught her attention. "Melia," she said. "Are we not sisters?"

Melia turned a puzzled glance towards her. "Yes, we are. Why do you ask?"

Tyrea then walked over to her and placed her hands on Melia's soldiers. "As selfish as it sounds…why don't we share him?"

Melia looked up at her sister, partially shocked at what she proposed, but at the same time, she wasn't. She knew that _if_ Andrew were to become Emperor, _if_ Andrew gave up on his world and decided to live in this world, she would have to share him with someone else. But she did not know how he would take that. She did not know if he was the type to take favorites; if he would love one more than the other. But there was one thing she was certain of: if she were to share him, she wouldn't let it be anyone other than her dear sister.

Melia looked down at the clothes she had in her hand.

And then looked back at Tyrea.

"Of course," she replied with both a shy smile and rosy cheeks. "We are sisters after all. And sisters share."

Tyrea smiled and wrapped her arms around Melia in a gentle hug. "Yes. We are." She then stood up. "Well then, I believe it's time I acquired a new outfit as well." She then walked over to the azure clad armor she spotted earlier. "I wonder how I'll look in his favorite color?"

…

"Hmmmmmm…." I kept pondering something that was on my mind while I was looking at the flat side of my weapon.

"Something wrong?" Sharla asked me, noticing my thoughtful expression.

"Huh? Oh, no, nothing's wrong," I answered. "I was just thinking…I think my weapon is missing something…"

"What would that be?" Dunban inquired, overhearing the conversation.

"A name."

"A name?" Shulk repeated, a little confused. "Why that?"

"Well, call me a bit of an eccentric, but I like to think of weapons as not just tools that you carry into battle, but as partners. Kinda like an extension of yourself. And besides, Saber just seems kinda dull and un original. No offense Dickson, I just like to be creative."

"None taken," Dickson said, merely waving the comment of like he didn't care.

"Have you thought of one yet?" Reyn joined in.

"Ummm…" I thought for a few seconds. "Well, maybe some wordplay with Saber, like um…Saber…Tooth…?"

…

"No, no, no, that's lame," I thought to myself mentally nagging myself for how stupid that sounded. "Ummm…well, it's made of iron…Iron Edge? No, no, that sounds like some kind of Iron Man copyright. Uhhhh…huh…Mechon Wrecker…? No, not intimidating enough. And besides that job's kinda been taken by the Monado."

Coming up with a name for a weapon was a lot harder than I thought.

"U-umm…Andrew…?" I heard a soft, rather meek voice behind me. I immediately recognized it as Melia's.

"Yeah, Mel-WHOA! Wh-wh-what the-?!"

What I saw before me nearly made what ever substitute for a heart I had (needed to come up with a name for that too) jump out of my chest. What I saw were Melia and Tyrea wearing completely different clothing than before. Melia was wearing a bunch of clothing that was covered in grey fur around her chest, arms, and legs. The out fit showed a lot, and I mean A LOT of bare skin. Her stomach now exposed, appeared to be very pale, but very smooth too, with quite a wide midriff on top of that. She wore a whole punch of leaves in he hair that looked like they came from a palm tree. If I didn't know any better, I'd say she was some kind of Amazon princess. A very large part of her cleavage was visible in her out fit and didn't leave much to the imagination.

Tyrea's outfit on the other hand, while not as revealing as Melia's, showed off quite a bit of her muscular physique. She was wearing a deep blue clad suit of armor that covered her arms and legs with a dark blue jumpsuit underneath it. The suite hugged her body rather tightly, showing of the muscles in the sides of her calves, specifically the ones in between her legs. Her stomach, just like Melia's, was completely exposed, showing off her rater well toned abdominals. The breastplate exposed the top of her large assets, not leaving much to the imagination for those either.

Melia's face was blushing a deep crimson, while Tyrea's was blushing just as much, but her face was rather rosy. Once again, for like the umpteenth time in my life, I felt the crotch section of my pants tighten. _"Goddamn it hormones!"_

Ladies who may be reading this, let me be your guide on what it's like to be a guy. (Apologies if this may seem sexist. I really hope it isn't.)

Rule Number One: It's just about as difficult as it is for the opposite gender, if not more so.

Rule Number Two: Yes, periods can be embarrassing, but they're easier to conceal than a public erection, especially if your pants are too large and you happen to forget to wear a belt. Sigh. Worst day in high school of my life.

Rule Number Three: We are complete and total idiots when it comes to dealing with the opposite sex. Plain and simple.

Right now, I was experiencing all three of these things in the worst way possible. I tried subtlety to fix my self so my pants felt more comfortable, but I'm pretty sure both girls saw. Either that or they were just focusing on how red my face was.

"So, Andrew," Tyrea asked in a rather seductive tone. "How do we look?"

I wanted to say something in response to that. I mean, yeah they looked…astonishing. But at that moment, words were failing me big time. "Ummm…Uhhhh…I uhhh….you…uhhhhh…" I looked like a babbling idiot. But that didn't stop Tyrea from approaching me. She came up to me and wrapped her arms around my left arm and buried it in her cleavage.

"Cat got your tongue?" She asked me, teasingly.

" _Oooooooohhhh boy, getting mixed signals here,"_ I desperately tried to calm myself down, both physically and mentally. But then…

"Come on now, Melia," Tyrea called to her sister. "You're not going to let me have him all by my lonesome are you?"

Melia kept flickering her eyes back and fourth between the ground and me. She slowly started walking towards me, wrapped her arms around my right arm, burring it in her cleavage as well. "Does…does this…look good on me…?" Her face was so red I could practically feel the heat coming off of it.

"Uhhh…y-yeah…" I said rather weakly. "You look…very cute…"

Melia gave a shy smile and her wings fluttered happily.

"Oooiiiiii," Tyrea turned my attention to her as she gently placed her cool smooth and soft hand on my cheek and pulled my face towards her. "You haven't said anything about my attire yet."

"Uhhhh…y-yeah…you, uh, you look…extremely hot…Tyrea…"

"Hot?" She raised an eyebrow and tilted her head.

"I-It's a…figure of speech from my world…it basically means you look…incredibly attractive…"

Tyrea then smiled gently as her wings fluttered a little as well.

I heard Dickson whistling behind me. "Andrew, you sly dog!"

"Well, well, what's this?" Dunban quipped. "A lovely lady on each arm?"

"I have to say I'm impressed," Sharla commented. "Good on ya, mate!"

"Guys, I think we have ourselves a lady killer!" Reyn shouted excitedly.

"Wow…I can honestly say I did not see this coming," Shulk replied.

"Riki wonder who Andy would take as wifeypon!" Riki said curiously.

I felt a strong pulsing sensation in my chest. "W-What?!" I exclaimed, feeling my face getting incredibly hot.

Tyrea just giggled at my reaction. "You see, sister?" She said to Melia as she snuggled up against my arm. "I told you his face was adorable when he gets embarrassed."

Melia just shyly glanced up at me and snuggled up against my other arm too. "A-Andrew…you…really do look cute…when you blush." She then stood on her toes and planted a big gentle kiss on my face. Tyrea did the same. They then let go of my arms and walked back to the others.

If it were possible for me to die right then and there, I'm not sure weather the cause would be happiness or embarrassment. Probably both.

"I never thought I'd say this," I muttered aloud as I went towards the others. "But the first body of water I see, I need to take a cold bath."

"Alright, then," Dickson spoke up, bringing us back to reality. "If you're all ready, why don't you lot tell me what's happened recently. You look like you've been through quite the ordeal."

…

"Fiora?" Dickson said with disbelief in his voice. "We're talking about the same Fiora, right? Dunban's sister?"

"According to everyone else, yeah, that's the one," I replied.

Dickson sighed. "Well that explains Shulk's glum expression. I can't believe they're sticking Homs into those faced Mechon. Looks like they weren't just eating us."

"They made Mumkhar into one too," Dunban added. "He was the one who attacked Colony 9."

Dickson just scoffed at this. "Oh, and there was me thinking he snuffed it in that battle."

"Uhhh…you aren't surprised…?" I said, a bit shocked at Dickson's nonchalant response.

"That he attacked Colony 9?" he deadpanned right back at me. "I dunno what drives those Mechon. I've given up on trying to figure them out. It don't surprise me one bit. Still," Dickson then had a glimmer of interest in his eyes. "Mumkhar as well? Things are getting interesting."

"Uhhh, pardon?" I asked.

"Oh, nothing," Dickson waved his previous comment off like it wasn't important.

"It's time for us to return," Alvis suddenly spoke up, walking up to Dickson.

"You're not coming with us?" I asked the silver haired Homs.

"I would like to continue providing assistance," he replied. "But my help is required in assembling Homs for the allied force. There are also my duties as seer to consider."

"Then I'll be off too," Dickson added. "I'm positive you lot will be alright getting Fiora back. In the meantime, we'll be getting ready for battle."

"Thanks for coming this far," Shulk eagerly thanked his father figure. "We'll be fine. We can handle this ourselves."

"No bucket of bolts is gonna stand a chance against our combined might!" I said with a fist pump.

Alvis smiled and nodded at my energetic statement.

"Now hold on," Dickson said, trying to calm us down. "Galahad Fortress is a key position for the Mechon. You can't just rush in, all guns blazing."

"Agreed," Dunban noted. "We will have to infiltrate via the ether inlets. If we're right and the Mechon do feed off ether…"

"Then there's probably some sort of influx channel," I finished.

"Correct," confirmed Dunban. "Our objective is to reach one of those channels.

Dickson nodded at his war partner and turned to Shulk and I. "Don't go dying on me, Shulk," he said.

"I won't!" Shulk exclaimed with a smile. "You take care as well!"

"You know me," Dickson quipped back with a smile. "And Andrew. Make sure you take good care of your two lady friends, especially now that they've started to fancy you."

I just groaned at that last jab from the old man. "Yeah, yeah…" I had a pretty good feeling that these types of scenarios were gonna conti…wait a minute, Melia _and_ Tyrea approached me so nonchalantly. Well, Tyrea did, Melia looked incredibly flustered over the situation. But still, neither of them showed signs of fighting over me. Why was that…?

I decided to think about that later.

Dickson and Alvis climbed into one of the High Entia transport pods and took off back to the Bionis. We all watched as it disappeared from sight.

"Looks like it's just us now," Melia said.

"Yup," I agreed.

"Right, then!" Dunban exclaimed, getting down to business. "We head for the hilt of the sword: Galahad Fortress."

"Okay!" Shulk exclaimed, and started running off into the valley with the rest of us in pursuit.

Well, all except Dunban, who stopped for a few seconds to take in his surroundings.

"Nostalgia?" I asked the hero.

"Indeed," he replied. "One year on. Now, at last, we will seize our destiny."

…

"I'm tellin' you, Egil!" Mumkhar's voice roared from Metal Face. "That boy in blue is just as big of a pain as the Monado brat, if not more so!"

"And why should this be of my concern?" Egil deadpanned, his voice echoing from his gigantic golden Mechon, Yaldabaoth. "So what if this Homs has the ability to damage both regular Mechon and Faces without the use of the Monado? Our power still remains unmatched."

"That's not my point!" Mumkhar argued back. "It's not just that he is able to damage Mechon all on his own! The boy literally doesn't seem to die! I've dealt countless wounds to him that should've all been fatal, but he just heals lickety-split and BAM, back on his feet!"

"Pure nonsense." Egil clearly wasn't impressed. "You expect me to believe that there exists a Homs who has achieved immortality?"

"Whatever that boy is, he definitely ain't a Homs!" Mumkhar countered. "I've picked up a few whispers here and there from some of the surveillance drones I left at Alcamoth. Word on the street is, that boy ain't from either the Bionis or Mechonis."

Now this caught Egil's attention, but ever so slightly. "What do you mean by this? Explain."

"This boy, Andrew I believe his name is, wherever he's from, it ain't the world as you and I know it. He's from…ah, what was it…another world, uh….a-another dimension!"

"Another dimension?" Egil repeated. "Do you mean to tell me that he is from another plain of existence than us?"

"I don't know what to tell you," Mumkhar replied. "I myself am still skeptical of the whole idea. But I'd be lying if I said the kid didn't do stuff that'd make me think otherwise."

"Hmmm…" Egil pondered on this for a moment. "Metal Face. Go and scout for the Monado wielder and his friends. No doubt they are approaching our doorstep even as we speak."

"Heh," Mumkhar scoffed. "I would've done it even if it wasn't and order." Metal Face turned and left to do his duty, leaving Egil to ponder upon this predicament.

He thought of his best friend Arglass, whom had become consumed by the Monado, and his battle against him.

"So another has appeared with the ability to wield the Monado," Egil thought aloud. "But why would Zanza release the its full power? He surely knows it would become a double-edged sword. Yet he relinquishes it to that mere child." Either Zanza had grown desperate, or maybe he had something else planned. "And then there's this…'boy in blue,' as Metal Face describes him. And this so called 'parallel dimension that he is from.' This bears further investigation."

Egil then turned his thoughts onto Nemesis.

"But more importantly, there is a Face that escaped my control and acted alone. I must make sure that never happens again. But now that the Monado has been freed, it appears the usefulness of the Faces has come to an end. Although…perhaps there are still things to be learnt from having them challenge both of these boys. The wielder of the Monado, and boy in blue."

AN: Sorry this was kind of a boring chapter. I had originally planned to put the final fight against Mumkhar in here, but that'd make it too long. But hey, ANDREW'S GOT A NEW WEAPON! I've always loved Dickson's weapon, and I wanted to give my OC one too. So now he's got it, and it's going to be his signature weapon throughout the entire Boundless series. Also, I apologize if I may have made Melia and Tyrea seem a bit too shallow in this chapter. I'm not really a huge fan of those overly dramatic love triangle plot points. Also, this was the first time writing a…uh…I guess it would be called echi scene…? Hope I'm spelling that right. So yeah, there's that to take into consideration. Also, again, like I said a few pages above with the whole "guide on what it's like to be a guy," I apologize if that came across as sexist, that was never my intention. Anyways, hope you enjoyed this chapter! STAY TUNED!


	10. Chapter 8-Mumkhar's Last Stand

AN: SIIIIIGGHHHHH. College is coming back to haunt me once more. Which means it's going to be ridiculously difficult for me to keep updating this series. Oh well, too bad professors, cause that's not gonna stop me! NEEEEEXT!

Chapter Eight-Mumkhar's Last Stand

 _Good or evil, a life is a life._

 _It is not one's decision to decide the fate of another._

(Cue Mechanical Rhythm)

"RAAAAAAHHHHH!"

I dashed forward with all my strength at an M63 Destruction Unit that was twice as big as I was, rammed my blade into its frontal lobe, pulled the trigger and BOOM! Sent that sucka flying backwards, crashing into three of its comrades like they were bowling pins!

"STEEERRRRIIIIIIIIIIKE! Okay, who else wants a piece of me?! Any takers?"

The response I got was a whole bunch of the same model Mechon charging right for me. I just smirked, focusing energy into my blade. I then gave a mighty horizontal slash to the foes in front of me, unleashing a dark purple shockwave that cut down all the Mechon that were coming for me.

"Andy the not Hom Hom is lean mean Mechon wreaking machine!" This obviously was Riki.

I just scratched my head in embarrassment. "Uhhhh…thanks Rik, but, uhh…I don't think it was _that_ coo-"

BANG!

"SHIT!"

Sharla had fired a shot that barely missed the right side of my face. I turned to look at what she shot and saw the smoldering remains of an M35 Woodpecker Unit.

"You missed a spot," Sharla said to me with a smirk.

"Y'know, a little heads up in advance would've been nice," I complained.

"Oh relax, it's not like that shot would've killed you if it hit," she replied.

"Yeah but it still hurts like a bitch. Especially if it's to the head." I had a serious migraine after Tyrea had blasted my head clean off.

"MONADO BUSTER!" Shulk laid waste to a bunch of M63X Android Units with the Monado's giant blue blade. Call it pride, but I couldn't help but feel that he was trying to upstage me.

Meh, whatever.

"Let's keep going!" Shulk said to everyone as he charged forward.

It had been like this for about an hour now. No sooner had Alvis and Dickson left, we had started off into the deep rolling plains of Sword Valley, most of which was a whole bunch of running and gunning and slashing down various mechanical drones. Most of their names I had learned from Shulk and Dunban, since they had the most knowledge on the Mechon. They had told me their weaknesses, which ones to take out first, and which ones to leave alone, unless I was absolutely sure I could beat it. Right now we were in an ether-processing shaft, clearing out any Mechon that stood in our way. It wasn't very big and the exit was clearly visible as soon as we entered. All we had to do was just fight our way out. A simple task, given our combined strength. As a mater of fact we were headed for the exit right this second.

And we would have made it without much effort if two M28 Melee Units had suddenly dropped down to block our path.

"It'll take more than that to stop us!" Tyrea shouted as she took flight with her wings. One of the Melee units tried to swat her like a fly, but Tyrea was way to fast for it. In a few seconds she dived under one its swings and delivered an upward slash to its torso. The Melee unit staggered back a bit, leaving it completely open. Dunban took this chance to charge up to its legs and slice them clean off with a Gale Slash. This caused the towering Mechon to topple over on its back. Melia then ran up to its head and impaled it straight into the ground with a Spear Break.

One down, one to go.

The second one, enraged by its fallen comrade (I guess) began charging its fist up with ether.

"Oh no you don't!" Shulk yelled as he casted Monado Shield on all of us. The Melee unit then slammed it's hand into the ground and created a massive explosion that glowed a brilliant green. The glowing yellow barriers around us protected us from the blast, however. We didn't get a scratch.

"Reyn!" I called out.

"You got it!" He replied.

Reyn and I both charged at the confused Melee unit, with Reyn jumping in front of me. As he was about to land, I stuck out the flat end of my blade and he landed on it. I then started to perform a three-sixty degree spin, turning my sword with its edge pointed downwards, and using its weight as momentum. Reyn, about three quarters into the swing, pushed himself off my weapon and soared straight for the Mechon's head, using the momentum of my swing as the takeoff force.

"HAMMER BEAT!" Reyn yelled as he performed a forward flip and slammed his brand new anti-Mechon Pile Driver into the Melee unit's head, creating a dent that practically crushed it. Everyone had gotten some form of anti-Mechon gear from Dickson back at the convoy. Sharla had got some armor piercing bullets for her rifle, since she decided to keep using her lost fiancé's gun. Tyrea got some armored blades and Melia; an armored staff. As for Riki, he got himself an iron club with the head of some kind of gargoyle on it. Dunban didn't really need anything new, since he already had a weapon that could cut down a Mechon with sheer force. And as for me…well, let's just say I was having a friggin' blast with my saber.

The Mechon that Reyn struck down let out a loud groan and finally collapsed to the ground.

"Okay," I said putting my Saber on my back. "Are we done here?"

"Looks like it," Sharla said, sweeping the area with the scope of her rifle. "I don't see or hear anymore of them."

"Good," Melia said. "Hopefully now we can proceed with out anymore interruptions."

"Indeed," Tyrea agreed with her sister.

"Alrighty then," I said as I opened up a Time Gate and sucked most of the scrap metal into the Timeless Void. I had been doing this for almost every large group of Mechon we fought.

"Andrew," Melia said to me. "I've been meaning to ask you. Why do you keep trapping most of the Mechon we defeat in your prison? I doubt they'll reactivate after the thorough thrashing we gave them."

"Oh, no I'm not worried about that," I replied. "I've just got an idea for all the spare parts when I get the chance to work on it."

"An idea?" Tyrea asked me curiously.

"You'll see," I chuckled. "I want it to be a surprise."

"Friends, look!" Riki called ahead of us. "Riki think he find entrance to Mechon base!"

We all rushed to see what the Heropon saw. And sure enough what caught my eye was a river of ether flowing into a small tunnel right underneath Galahad Fortress. And right next to that tunnel was a large narrow opening that appeared to be some sort of entrance.

"It looks as though it's unguarded," Dunban observed. "It should make for a decent entry point."

"Now's our chance!" Shulk said, about to charge ahead.

"Hold on, kid," I said, stopping him by the shoulder. "At this point, Egil probably knows we're already here. I seriously doubt that he would've left something like this completely unguarded. There may be some Mechon hiding, just waiting to ambush us."

"Andrew's right," Tyrea agreed with me. "We must remain on guard, just in case."

"Alright," Reyn said. "So, how do we get over there?"

"Looks like there's a bridge down below we could use to cross," Sharla said, using the scope of her sniper rifle to scan the area below us.

I looked at the area where Sharla had pointed and sure enough, there was a large bridge with a giant circular center that stretched out across the open ocean that was waaaaaaaayyyy far down.

"Okay then," I said. "Let's head for that bridge. Keep your weapons at the ready just in case we meet any opposition."

…

It took us a few minutes to get down to the bridge that Sharla had pointed out, and we were crossing it just now. But there was a very unpleasant surprise waiting for us on the other side.

It was Mumkhar, once again standing in our way. Though this time he was without his Metal Face Mechon.

"I've been waiting for you," Mumkhar called out to us from the other side of the bridge.

"Mumkhar!" Dunban yelled in anger.

"Ah, geez," I groaned. "I knew were going to run into this guy again."

"How predictable," Mumkhar said to his former war buddy. "I knew you were going to come."

"How could you?" Dunban demanded an explanation. "How could you do this to your own kind?!"

"That ain't got nothing to do with it!" Mumkhar shouted back. "I'm just having the time of my life here! Ain't that the point?! I even get to take out that annoying Monado brat, and that irritating boy in blue as well!"

I couldn't help but laugh at that. "Yeah, uh remember the last time you impaled me with your claws and it did absolutely jack shit?!" I taunted.

"Oi, beardy!" Reyn jumped in. "You're talkin' pretty tough there! But don't be so sure you can take us all on by yourself!"

"Come on!" Mumkhar replied as he turned his back towards us. "I ain't that stupid."

Just then there was a low rumbling noise.

"What's that sound?" Sharla wondered aloud.

I had been working with surround audio for about three years back in my world, so I had a pretty keen ear. And going by my ears, it sounded like it was coming from above us. So I turned my eyes to the sky and saw…several spears headed straight for us.

"Incoming mail!" I shouted as I ran over to Melia and Tyrea and tackled them to the ground to keep them safe from the spears. The others followed my lead and hit the deck as well. No latter than that, a whole bunch of spears impaled the bridge around us, eight in total. And with them, eight Xord Mechons touched down right in front of us.

"You scumbag!" Reyn yelled at Mumkhar.

"Hey, you're the one who jinxed us!" I shouted at Reyn. "Next time, don't ask for trouble!"

Reyn just winced, realizing that he kinda had that one coming.

"Well then, Monado boy, immortal bastard!" Mumkhar shouted to me and Shulk as his Metal Face Mechon touched down behind him with a loud CRASH! "Think you can do it?! Can ya kill them all?!"

The eight Xord Mechons picked up their spears as Mumkhar jumped into the cockpit of Metal Face.

"I wonder who's inside?" Mumkhar's voice boomed through the air from Metal Face. "Who could it be? Your dad? Your mum? Or maybe that special someone!"

Mumkhar was clearly trying to piss us off, trying to make some of the others consider the fact that their missing fellow colonists might be piloting one of them. This really didn't have that much of an effect on me since this wasn't my world. But still these were people. I've never killed anyone in my life before, ever. The very thought of it was scary to me. My friend Jonathan served in the military for a few years, and he told me that the battlefield is the scariest place to be on the planet. In an instant, your life can end before you even realize it, so you must always make quick decisions and never hesitate in your actions. And right now…I was having a very hard time making a decision on what to do about the Xords. The enemies may have taken them, but they were still people. However, considering the situation we were in…we may not have a choice.

I noticed that Sharla's eyes, started to burn with pure hatred at Mumkhar. Clearly the thought of Gadolt had come to her mind after Mumkhar's taunt. She did after all never gave up on finding him. And the thought of him being turned into a machine didn't settle well with her. She slowly started to approach Metal Face. Reyn placed a hand on his shoulder trying to stop him, probably coming to the same conclusion as I did. But Sharla, fed up with Mumkhar and his atrocities, just shook Reyn's hand off.

"Aha!" Mumkhar exclaimed. "Looks like we have our first contestant!"

I suddenly hear Shulk gasp. I turned to him just in time to see his eyes flash blue.

" _Uh oh."_ I thought. He probably just had another bad vision.

"Too bad," Mumkhar continued. "She won't give me much of a fight." His claws then started to glow a sickly green.

"Sharla! Look out!" Shulk yelled.

Whatever vision Shulk had, it probably didn't involve a good ending for Sharla. So, using me enhanced speed I dashed in front of Sharla just as Mumkhar's claws were about to cleave her. I pushed her back behind me and quickly drew my saber with my right hand, and blocked Mumkhar's attack. I then ignited my left hand and used Death's Hand to punch Mumkhar's claw out of the way. Mumkhar just grunted in annoyance.

"Andrew!" Sharla exclaimed, shocked at my fast reaction time.

"Shulk!" I called back. "You had another vision, right?"

"Uh, y-yeah!" Shulk replied, just as shocked as Sharla.

"What did you see?"

"R-right!" Shulk regained his composure. "Everyone! Watch out for the green claws! And the other ones' spears! There's something different about them!"

I took a second to look at the spears the Xords' were holding. Shulk was right. The spears were designed after the same one that had impaled and killed Zanza.

"You catch on quick, boy," Mumkhar surprisingly complemented Shulk. "You're right. These weapons are special. They were made especially to decompose you Homs! Ah-no, wait… _any_ being from Bionis?"

"How can that be?!" Dunban exclaimed.

"Some kind of poison I'm guessing," I said.

"Something like that," Mumkhar replied. "I dunno about all this technical stuff, but it's got something to do with that ether. Ether is like the Bionis' blood. The fortress sucks its blood out for us. Then we use it to make this green liquid."

"Despicable!" Tyrea shouted.

"You monsters!" Shulk added.

Mumkhar just chuckled. "Pretty clever, don't you think?"

"Barbaric is a more suitable word, I believe," Melia added her two cents.

"Ditto," I agreed.

"This world suites me just fine, Dunban!" Mumkhar jeered.

"Mumkhar!" Dunban raised is sword at his former ally. "You're gonna pay!"

"I'm tired of your yapping, Mr. Hero! I'm gonna squash you like a slug, right here, where we shared such lovely memories!"

Mumkhar then dove his right at me and let out a wicked laughter. I jumped out of the way and back to the others.

"Okay!" I said. "Here's the plan! Shulk, Dunban! Since the two of your have got a score to settle with this guy, you focus on Mumkhar! The rest of us will take care of the Xords!"

"Acknowledged!" Dunban called back to me. They both charged at the towering Metal Face and began to clash with him.

"Andrew," Melia said to me, a little worried. "How exactly are we going to fight them? There's Homs inside!"

"She's right," Tyrea added. "Though they are on the other side, they still are people."

One of the Xords tried to ram us into the ground with its spear, but I saw it coming and sliced the top off, causing the ether to spew outwards. All us quickly dodged out of the way quickly, except for Tyrea and Melia. They simply absorbed the ether particles into their bodies, discarding all of the hazardous materials into the air, which dissolved into nothingness.

"Well, it's pretty clear that whoever this Egil guy is, he's totally brainwashed them to his cause," I replied. "We may not have a choice. But for now, just focus on incapacitating them. Take away their ability to fight, and force them to withdraw!" With that, I dashed up to the Xord that struck at me and the girls, which was now trying to crush me with his fist now that his spear was useless. But of course, I was way too fast for that slowpoke attack. I quickly dived under the attack, summersaulted back on my feet, and then jumped into the air with a mighty uppercut slash, cutting the right arm of the Xord Mechon clean off.

Tyrea followed in suit by channeling ether into her blades, then fired a cross slash shockwave from them, cutting down the left arm of the Xord down.

"RAZOR WIND!" Melia unleashed the ether she had absorbed and unleashed it into to form of very sharp blades of wind that flew forward and severed both legs of the Xord.

With absolutely no way to fight back, the Xord Mechon just gave us a dumb struck look. I responded by giving a smirk and saying, "Sayonara, biotch!" I then threw Death's Hand smack dab into the face of the Xord and launched it straight into three other Xords that Riki, Reyn and Sharla were struggling against. The impact was so strong that it shattered their arms in several places and knocked their spears out of their hands. They went toppling over the edge, shortly firing their engines and flew away back to the fortress.

"Woah!" Reyn said. "Now that was awesome!"

"Crash pow!" Riki cheered.

"Welp, that's half of them down," I started.

"And half of a mess to go," Sharla finished.

And it was then I had an awesome idea. "Actually, maybe not," I said. "TIME EATER!" I then shouted as I snapped my fingers and a massive Time Gate appeared behind me. From it, the Time Eater clawed its way out, slamming its hands on the rims of the gate, pushed the rest of its body out, and let out a loud, monstrous roar.

"WOAH!" Reyn yelled. "I totally forgot you had that thing!"

"This should even the odds for us," I said to everyone. "Time Eater!" The Time Eater looked at me, waiting for an order. I pointed to the remaining four Xords' who were now staring at me in fear, and gave the command, "Wreck their shit."

The Time Eater gave a growl of acknowledgement and dashed towards the Xords. It tore off the arms of one of them with its claws, and then just started whacking the hell out the poor bastard with them. The other Xords tried to help their partner out. And by "help" I of course mean attempting to ram my eternal partner's back with their spears. As you can imagine, that only succeeded in pissing it off. So the Time Eater just ripped the spears out of its back, and then proceeded to whack the ever-living shit out of its assailants with their spears. It whacked them so hard that the spears broke and sprayed ether all over their bodies. And if what Sharla told me about their previous encounter with the original Xord, that's not good for Mechon armor. Regardless, the Xords' had had enough of this monstrosity, so the just got the fuck out of there and return to the fortress.

"Cowards!" Mumkhar yelled after seeing the whole fiasco unfold.

Reyn, Sharla, Riki, Melia, Tyrea and I just broke down laughing. "Oh, man, now that was hilarious!"

"I'm not sure which is more amusing," Tyrea said. "The dumbstruck look on the Mechon's faces, or that creature just effortlessly tearing them to shreds!"

"I'd say their inadequacy was far more amusing," Melia input.

"Okay, buddy!" I said to the Time Eater. "That's enough."

Acknowledging me command, the Time Eater grunted and zoomed over to me, phasing back into my body.

"Alrighty," I said. "Now that they're out of the way, let's go-"

I was about to say "help Shulk and Dunban," but when I looked to see them, they were actually doing very well against Mumkhar. Dunban blocked an attack from one of his poison claws, while Shulk ran up Mumkhar's left arm, jumped at his face and rammed the Monado right through the left side of his face. Mumkhar yelled and swore in fury.

"Uhhhh…on second thought," I said, "I think they're doing okay."

"Ugh..! Too much…!" Mumkhar grunted as Shulk removed his blade from Mumkhar's face, jumping down next to Dunban. "The Monado is too much…!" The Metal Face frame, exhausted from the beating it was so righteously getting, collapsed to its knees.

"Yes," Dunban spoke to his former ally. "This is the power of the Monado! You wanted it, so now you can have it! MUMKHAR!" He then started to charge at Metal Face.

" _Oh no,"_ I thought, immediately seeing where this was going.

Dunban was going to kill Mumkhar.

"I'm better than all of you!" Mumkhar roared in defiance. "You're the one who's finished!" He then pointed his tail cannon at Dunban, charging up a Grand Shot.

"DIIIIEEE!" Dunban yelled as he charged towards his enemy.

"Dunban!" Shulk yelled.

"Stop!" I yelled running to intercept Dunban's strike. I dashed as fast as I could in front of him, recklessly putting up my left arm in a guard position. Dunban's blade went right through my arm, creating an open wound. I immediately closed the wound and trapped part of Dunban's sword in my arm. I almost didn't make it however. By the time I got there, Dunban had sliced off Mumkhar's cannon, causing it to fly into the air. The Grand Shot fired into the sky, hitting one of the spiky structures on the fortress. And although I had managed to stop Dunban's blade, the tip had managed to embed itself in the cockpit section of Metal Face. I heard Mumkhar grunt. I'm guessing the sword was dangerously close to either his face or neck.

"Andrew!" Dunban shouted at me. "Get out of my way!"

"No!" I yelled back, gritting my teeth against the pain. "That's a person in there! Not a machine!"

"Andrew's right!" Shulk backed me up. "Mumkhar's not a Mechon!"

"Have you two forgotten everything he's done?!" Dunban argued. "Where is your killer instinct, Shulk?! And Andrew, I thought you were supposed to be merciless! Now is the time!"

I could almost hear the sound of something snapping inside my head as Dunban said that. "I've got half a mind to punch you in the face for that," I said. "I already told you guys that I'm nothing like that! If I were, Tyrea wouldn't even be standing here! I would just as bad as this ass hole!" I said that last part pointing my saber at Metal Face. And as I spoke Tyrea's name, I subconsciously found myself looking back at her and Melia. They were both looking at me with worry in their eyes. "Of course we haven't forgotten!"

"Yes!" Shulk added. "I hate him, Dunban! For what he did to Fiora and the Emperor! So of course I want to get my revenge!"

"Same with me!" I said. "Ever since that night, I've been running scenario's in my mind on how to torture this prick. I've wanted nothing more than to make him pay for making Melia cry! But since I discovered that Metal Face is actually a Homs controlled Mechon, that's changed!"

I noticed Melia bringing her hand to her chest, placing it on her heart as I spoke that. I swear I could almost see tears in her eyes.

"Face Mechon are not like the others!" Shulk spoke up again. "They're people! Like us! Are you really willing to kill another Homs?"

"Yes!" Dunban answered. "Sometimes needs must!"

"What if this were Nemesis we were fighting?! Your sister?!" I countered. "What would you do then?!"

Dunban then gave me a mix between a shocked and angry look. But he then took a second to think about my words.

"He's right, Dunban!" Shulk said. "When we set out, I wanted to destroy all Mechon! That was my aim. But now…I know that there are people inside. I have to know why! What's the reason for all of this? Why do Bionis and Mechonis have to keep on fighting? I have to find out why!"

"If attack and retaliation is all there is to this battle," I added. "It will never end. The battle will be stuck in a cycle and more and more people will continue to die. If we can find the reason for all of this, then maybe the cycle will end."

"I see," Dunban said as he let our words sink in. "So that is your fight." Dunban then slowly drew his sword back, out of Metal Face's cockpit, and out of my arm.

Grunting against the pain that was now subsiding I closed my wound and relaxed my breathing. I took a look at Dunban. And he looked back at me. I think that was the first argument that I had with any of these guys.

"Pathetic!" Mumkhar's voice roared. Dunban and I turned to look at Metal Face, and saw that he was trying to take a swipe at us with one of his claws. But we saw it coming a mile away.

Immediately, Dunban and I dodged and went for Metal Face's arms. I sliced off the right, Dunban took the left.

"AAUUGH!" Mumkhar roared as his arms came off with a loud crack. With nothing to support his momentum, Metal Face fell flat on its torso.

"You alright, tough guy?" I asked Dunban.

He nodded at me in response. "I will never forgive what he's done," he said. "And yet…Andrew…Shulk…your words…they ring true…I feel…their weight…" He then turned to Shulk and I with a reassuring grin. "We have go help Fiora now. We'll worry about the rest later."

"Right!" Said Shulk.

"That's the spirit," I said smiling back. We then turned to what was left of Metal Face.

"Did you hear that, Mumkhar?" Dunban called out. "We haven't got time to be playing around with you!"

Metal Face then struggled to its feet. "You always had to have the last word…" Mumkhar reminisced.

Just then Shulk's eyes flashed blue.

"Oh boy, here we go," I said.

"JUST DIIIEE!" Mumkhar roared as he ran right towards us, charging up a shot from what was left of his cannon.

"No!" Shulk yelled. "Don't move!"

Mumkhar wasn't listening. He just fired his shot right at us.

"Hit the deck!" I yelled as I tackled both Shulk and Dunban to the ground. The shot flew right by us and hit the outer wall of Galahad Fortress. I then heard a loud crumbling noise. I looked up and saw that the same spike that was hit with the stray Grand Shot was coming loose. The impact from the shot that Mumkhar just fired had just enough force to shake it from the structure. The spike broke off with a crack and plummeted towards the bridge.

Straight towards Mumkhar.

The spike impaled the Metal Face frame right through the cockpit, with the tip digging into the center of the circular hilt of the bridge. Mumkhar gave out a gurgled cry of agony as he was hit.

"Oh, shit!" I yelled in shock.

"Mumkhar!" Dunban shouted.

The area around us started to crumble from the spike's impact. "Back up, back up, back up!" I yelled as we got to our feet and jumped to the outer ring of the hilt. No sooner than we did, the section behind us broke off, sending Mumkhar plummeting to his doom.

"No!" he cried out in defiance. "NO! NOT LIKE THIIIIIIIS!"

He then exploded, not even a quarter of the way down to the ocean. We all stood in silence for a few seconds.

"Mumkhar…" Dunban said softly. "You went too far…you fool."

Done in by his own jealously and blood lust. I would never say this out loud, but it was a fitting end for him.

…

Lorithia was in the Tower of Research, analyzing the spear that Metal Face had used to impale Zanza with. She was intrigued; the technology of the Mechon was quite impressive to have crafted such a deadly weapon. _"But if you really think that's what it takes to kill him,"_ she thought to herself. _"You are sorely mistaken."_

Alvis then silently walked up beside her, having return from escorting Shulk and company through Valak Mountain.

" They are of surprisingly little use…those visions," Lorithia criticized Shulk's ability.

"Because he could not save His Majesty?" Alvis questioned. "That was within the margin of fate. It was not Shulk's fault."

"Hmm. So you side with the boy?"

Alvis just nodded. "Did you find anything out?" he asked, trying to change the topic.

"I did," Lorithia replied. "It is most fascinating, this spear. The green fluid alters and destroys the structure of the ether, which is the building block of life on Bionis. It appears to have been created from ether energy drawn from the blood of the Bionis."

"Andrew made a similar prediction," Alvis said. "He theorized that the ether was being drawn in from the Bionis and into Galahad Fortress. I suppose this means he was correct."

"I do not think it is the only reason," Lorithia countered. "But it is too early to draw conclusions."

"Is there a countermeasure?"

Lorithia nodded. "Creating antibodies is a simple matter. We will be ready."

"That's good news."

Lorithia then turned to Alvis with a slightly irksome look. "Why did you have to include _him?_ " You know he disgusts me."

"Going by your choice of words, I'm assuming you mean Dickson and not Andrew," Alvis joked. "We all must respect our elders. After all, Dickson has known him far longer than us."

"Hmph," Lorithia snorted. "Speaking of whom, what did Zanza have to say about that boy, Andrew?"

"Well," Alvis replied. "He certainly was curious. He said the power he wielded felt very familiar, but he couldn't remember from where or why. He did say that he recalled having a friend with a similar power though."

"Hmm," Lorithia pondered. "The plot thickens."

…

"At least he's out of the way," Reyn said, as the rest of the crew walked towards us on the outer rim of the hilted bridge. "Now we just need to get inside."

Shulk nodded and turned to Galahad Fortress. "They're in there. Fiora and the golden Mechon."

I placed a hand on his shoulder. "We'll get 'em, Shulk." I said. "Come on, let's go." We then started walking off the bridge and to the side entrance of the fortress.

"Fiora!" Shulk suddenly shouted. We all turned around to see Shulk with a very distressed look on his face.

"What's up?!" Reyn asked, worried about his best friend.

"Did you see something?" Dunban questioned.

Shulk took a second before answering. "No…"

I just sighed. "Dude, no offense, but you suck at lying." It was pretty clear he had a vision.

Shulk, caught red-handed, gave up. "Alright," he said. "It was the silver Mechon…Fiora. She's definitely inside the fortress."

I had a pretty good feeling he was hiding more then he let on, but I decided not to pressure him about it. Dunban might have been thinking the same thing, as he just reluctantly said, "Alright. At least we know what to expect."

We then set off for real this time.

…

"Here's out way in," Reyn said as we approached the entrance.

"There's no turning back," Sharla added.

"Once we're inside, we'll need to be very discrete," I said. "If they spot us, we'll loose the element of surprise. So let's try to do this as quietly as possible."

"Right," Shulk agreed. "Let's move!"

AN: Sorry for the long delay, and for the half-assed chapter. At the time I was halfway through this chapter, college classes started up again. Also, I had a major writer's block on how to write this battle, but I wanted to get on with the story so I just said, "fuck it, do keep your followers waiting. So here it is. I'll try to keep updates as frequent as I can, but I'm also a video editor as well, so yeah, I got a lot going on. But no way in hell am I stopping, I'm going through with this story to the end. STAY TUNNED!


	11. Chapter 9-Infiltrating The Fortress

AN: IMMEDIATELY after I finished chapter eight, I decided to go ahead and get started on this, my writer's block completely dissolved now. So, NEEEEEEXT!

Chapter Nine-Infiltrating The Fortress

 _Remain in the shadows we must._

The inside of the fortress was exactly how I managed it. Poorly lit, and machines in every nook and cranny. Upon entering, we came across a large ether flow going straight into the fortress. There were bridges strewn above the river so we were able to use those to cross over it.

"Fiora's in here somewhere…" Shulk thought out loud as we progressed.

"Let's get looking," Reyn said, smashing his fists together. "Keep your eyes peeled. I'm ready for anything. I'll trash any Mechon that tries to mess with me!"

"Easy, go getter," I said. "Remember we're infiltrating, not raiding. We want to find Fiora, grab her, and then get the hell out of here and back to Alcomoth."

"We should also try to uncover any information on the Mechon as well," Tyrea added.

"Indeed," her sister agreed. "I've actually been curious myself about their origins."

We then came up to an automatic door that lead us into a large dim room with an elevator in the center. I also noticed that there were rooms off to the side with TONS of standard Mechon models lying dormant in them.

"Looks like we ended up in one of the hangars," Sharla observed.

"Yeah, and lucky us, every Mechon in here seems to be deactivated," added Shulk.

"Let's keep it that way," Dunban.

"Come on, let's see where this elevator goes," I said as I walked ahead. A second later I realized that no one was going with me. I turned around and saw everybody giving me a confused look. "Uh…something wrong?"

"Um…what's an 'elevator?'" Reyn asked.

" _Oh, right,"_ I thought. _"English terms."_ "Oh, that's just a word that some people in my world call a lift."

"Oh," Shulk replied. "Alright then."

After that, we all approached the elevator. After fiddling with the control panel for a few seconds, Shulk managed to get the elevator up and running. It looked like it could only go down, so we decided to just stick to that and see where we ended up. So we rode the elevator downward, descending deeper into the depths of Galahad, and when we stopped we ended up in a small hallway with another door in front of us. We approached it, and after I pressed the access panel to open the door, we came into some kind of control room. The room was pretty big, in the shape of a circle, with yellow holographic screens showing a few diagrams of part of the fortress. There was also a large glass window, and beyond it were two pistons, moving at a very slow pace.

"Where are we?" Reyn asked.

"Looks like the control room for an ether blast furnace," Sharla observed. She then pointed to something beyond the window. "There, look at that." We all looked to what she was pointing at, and saw pipes on the outer wall spilling ether into a giant vat bellow.

"So this is what supplies the Mechon with ether energy," Dunban said.

"Shulk!" Riki exclaimed. "What's that?!" He was bouncing up and down, pointing to the pistons with his paws. "Looks like fun! Riki want to ride!"

"That'd be a bad idea," I replied. "You not only might end up breaking something and drawing attention to ourselves, you'd probably get yourself either killed or severely injured beyond that which Sharla, Melia, or Tyrea could patch up."

"He's got a point," Reyn agreed. "We didn't come here to mess about, furball. Time to bounce on."

Before Riki could act disappointed Shulk spoke up. "Hold on," he said. "Andrew, you just gave me a great idea."

"I…did…?" When did that happen?

"If we can stop that piston," he continued. "We might be able to shut down the blast furnace."

"Ah, sabotage," I commented. "Not a bad idea, cutting off the enemy's ether supply. That will definitely limit their weapons production and might even give the allied force an upper hand."

"Riki say we try!" Riki said excitedly.

"Yeah, but how are we supposed to stop something that massive?" Reyn asked.

"Shulk? Any ideas?" I asked.

"Well," he said. "If we can stop the turbines driving the piston, it should work."

"Where do we find those?" Tyrea asked.

I pointed out beyond the window. "You see those two pipelines coming out of the pistons?"

"Yes," Tyrea answered.

"If we follow those, there's good chance they'll lead us to the generators."

"That's actually a very good observation, Andrew," Shulk complimented me. "And as it turns out, there's two more rooms off to the sides of this control room."

Sure enough, there were small ramps leading up to one more room on both the left and right sides of the control room.

"Okay," I said heading for the door on the left. "I'll go and check to see if there's any 'surprises' waiting for us."

"Surprises?" Melia repeated.

"Yeah, you know, like a Mechon standing guard or something."

"But why you?" Reyn asked.

"I'd rather it be someone who can recover instantly from an ambush." I repeated, continuing to walk to the door. "If I happen to find anything that resembles a walking trash can, I'll yell-"

WHAM!

SLASH!

BAKLONG!

CRASH!

"Found one! It's broken."

SHNK!

"AAAAHHHH, MOTHER…! GRRRR!"

BAKLONG, BAKLONG, BAKLONG!

BOOM!

"Okay, _now_ it's broken."

"Are you alright?!" Melia cried out.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm good. Son of a bitch got me in the leg is all." I then turned to the turbine behind me. Unlike most of the turbines in my world, y'know, like the ones at municipal waste facilities that use trash to generate electricity, this one was constructed vertically instead of horizontally. There was a control switch in front of it, which I guessed the purpose for it was to shut it on or off. So I pressed the switch and the turbine powered down. _"Well I guess that explains why there was a Mechon standing guard,"_ I thought to myself. _"These turbines are ridiculously easy to operate."_ I turned around and walked back towards the others. "Okay that's one turbine down."

CLANG!

BANG!

CRASH!

BOOM!

Those sounds were coming from the other Turbine room.

"Uhhh…what was that?" I asked. And it was at that second that I realized something…Reyn was missing. "Oh my God, where's Reyn?!"

Apparently the others didn't even notice that Reyn had given everyone the slip, so we all had a brief moment of panic…that is until the wreckage of two Hunter Units came flying in from the opposite room. They landed with a crash, and from the room we heard a familiar voice.

"Right here, guys! Also, second turbine's shut down now."

Reyn came walking back to us, Pile Driver in hand. I just sighed. "Dude, next time you wanna go it solo, give us a little heads up in advance, okay?"

"I second that motion," Sharla said, giving Reyn a very stern look. "I know you're tough and all, but you're only a Homs. You really had me worried there for a second!"

Reyn, taken aback by Sharla's tone of voice, only scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry…" he said.

I couldn't help but chuckle. "Y'know, between you and Riki, I'm not really sure which one of I would label as the team's trouble maker."

"Oi!" Reyn exclaimed, while Riki just growled at me.

"Ahahahahah!" I burst out laughing. "Wow, Shulk, you were right. They are easy targets."

"Told you," Shulk replied with a smirk. Reyn shot his best friend a look confusion and betrayal, while Riki only glared at him.

"Ahem," Tyrea cleared her throat, drawing our attention to her. "Um…the, pistons are still moving."

We all looked out the window. She was right. The pistons were still pumping ether. "I guess they function separately," I said. "Welp, guess we'd better go shut them down manually." I then snapped my fingers and opened a Time Gate that would transport me to the other side of the window. This was easy to do, since I could visually see where I wanted to go. I jumped through the gate and emerged safely on the other side. "Come on guys!" I called out to the others. "It doesn't hurt!"

Everyone seemed a little reluctant, especially Reyn. Tyrea, once again, had a cheeky smile on her face. _"Oh boy, what's she up to this time?"_ Tyrea then pushed Melia forward through the time gate. Melia let out a rather cute squeak of shock and surprise, and flew out of the other side of the Time Gate…and right on top of me. "OMPH!" I fell flat on my back and I immediately noticed that my face had become buried in her cleavage. I wanted to tell her that she was suffocating me, but my brain kinda failed on me as it was struggling to process what the fuck just happened. So the only sound I was able to make was a small and short grunt.

Melia jumped in surprise at the sound and vibration of my voice against her body. She then looked down and saw where my face was. Immediately her face started to turn beet red as she gasped deeply. "Oh my goodness!" she exclaimed as she jumped off me. "I am so sorry! Are you alright, Andrew?!"

"Pwah!" I gasped in air. "Uh…yeah, yeah…I'm good…just…ugh, brain's trying to process what happened…" I could still feel her soft chest against my face. It was very nice, and to be honest, I wish it would've lasted if we were alone.

"Oopsie!" A seductive teasing voice said all of a sudden. I then saw Tyrea leaping out at me through the Time Gate. _"Aw crap…"_ She crash-landed on me in the same way that Melia did: Flat on me with my face buried in her cleavage. "Mmph!" I grunted.

"Ohh!" Tyrea exclaimed. "Andrew…your voice…ooohh, it feels wonderful…!"

"Sister!" Melia objected. "You're suffocating him!"

"Oh?" Tyrea replied, teasingly. "His face is more red than it is blue. I think he likes it." She then placed the weight of her hips on mine as she leaned into my left ear. "Don't you?" she whispered. Tyrea then blew gently into my ear. This caused the lower section of my body to get…uh, a little excited. Too excited. Kinda ended up making contact with Tyrea's lower body. And this time, I know she noticed it, because she gave me a rather impish smile, and seductively licked her lips. "You are much too excitable. And I think that's cute."

"Ahem," I heard Sharla clear her throat. Tyrea looked behind her to see the other's giving her a rather awkward and serious look. "The pistons?"

"Oh. Right." Tyrea then got off of me with her face beet red. And I, taking a big gulp of air for a second time in a row, got up of my back and made my way to the pistons. However…

"You see dear sister Melia? That is how to, as most Homs would say, turn men 'on.'" I heard Tyrea say to Melia.

"O-oh…"

"Hey, just because I'm two to three years older than you doesn't mean I'm deaf!" I called behind me back. That got Tyrea to shut her mouth in embarrassment a little. With that, I approached the piston, and pressed the switch to shut it off. The pistons made a rather loud groan as they grinded to a halt.

"Nice one!" Reyn exclaimed. "We did it!"

"This should prevent them from mobilizing any large Mechon squads for now," said Dunban. "Hopefully we've improved the allied force's chances."

"Hold steady, my brother," Melia said with a determined look in her eyes. I placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. She looked up at me with a small blush and gave a gentle smile as her wings fluttered a bit.

Just then we heard a "clank" sound somewhere behind us. Shulk turned around and went to look over the platform railing. "Hey guys?" he called. "Looks like a door's been unlocked down below us."

"Nice!" Reyn exclaimed. "Let's get down to the blast furnace."

"That's probably where we'll find Fiora," I added. "Alright, let's go."

"Oooooohhhh! Riki wonder what this button does!"

We all turned around, fearing what we would find. It was Riki reaching for another switch at the pistons. "Riki, don't touch that!" I shouted.

Too late.

Riki excitedly slammed his paw on the switch. There was short high-pitched "beep," followed by a loud crackle of electricity. The pipelines started to pulse with electrical energy that traveled up towards the generator rooms. Both rooms exploded simultaneously with a loud "BOOM!"

"…Oopsie…" Riki said, realizing his mistake.

"This time, that was not my fault," Reyn input.

"Riki…" Melia groaned while face palming.

"Well, now their ether supply is definitely fucked," I said. "Nice going Rik."

"Oh? Did Riki do good thing?"

"Yes and no," I replied. "You did manage do sabotage the Mechon's ether supply even further than we thought possible, but in doing so, you've drawn the attention of two Melee Units that are approaching us from below the pistons."

BOOM!

One of them was trying to shoot us down.

"Scatter!" I shouted, as I ran to the railing behind us. I immediately opened a time gate that would make a short drop to the ground below. Normally, I could survive the shelf by myself with my body, but the others couldn't. Then again, Tyrea could, but she was able to fly. Melia's wings, as far as I was aware, were too small to sustain her in mid-air. So taking these factors in to consideration, I had to consider the well being of the group as a whole. As soon as I hit the ground I shouted to the others, "Come on, we gotta move!"

Everyone instantly jumped in through the Time Gate and followed after me through the newly open door.

"Shulk, see if you can get this door shut!" I ordered. "Sharla, you and I will hold them off and buy Shulk as much time as we can!"

"What?!" Sharla exclaimed. "Those are two of the biggest Melee Units I've ever seen! How are we going to fight them off?!"

"Just shoot at them! We don't have to defeat them, we just need to slow them down!" I immediately started to open fire. Sharla followed my lead. Our shots rang throughout the factory, shot for shot, shell for shell, and impact upon impact. Sharla stuck with her Thunder Bullet rounds. They didn't do much in terms of damage, but their electrical charge did screw around with their motor skills. Combine that with the punches of my energy bullets, the Melee Units were staggering around quite a bit, giving Shulk more than enough time to work on the door. At least until the Melee Units started to loose their patience and picked up their pace.

"Uh oh," I muttered. "Uh, Shulk? Please tell me you're almost done."

"Just a few more seconds…got it!"

The door in front of both Sharla and I instantly shut with a loud CLANG!

"There, got it! That should keep them at bay."

BANG!

A semi-large dent appeared in the door.

"Or not…" Shulk muttered.

"Oi, guys!" Reyn called. "There's another lift here!"

"Great!" Sharla said. "We can use that to escape!"

BANG BANG BANG!

"Shulk," I said urgently. "Start working your magic! That door's not gonna hold for much longer!"

"Already done!"

Wow. That guy is FAST!

BANG! CRACK!

"Take the elevator down!" I ordered the others. "I'll deal with our would be tour guides!"

"What?!" Melia cried out in shock. "Are you mad?!"

"Maybe," I replied wittingly. "Besides, it's not like I'm gonna die from two measly Melee Units."

"He has a point, sister," Tyrea calmed Melia down. "You and I are both aware of how tough he is to kill."

Melia still had a worried expression on, but she reluctantly noded.

"Alright," Shulk said as he slammed his hand on the elevator switch. A loud clanking sound was heard as the elevator came to life and took the rest of the party down.

BANG! CRACK! GROOOAAAANNNN!

One of the Melee units poked its head through the door.

"Y' know, I gotta say your tenacity is really commendable," I started to boast as I reached for my sword. "But…"

The Melee tried to clobber me with its hand, but I blocked it with my blade. "Egil really should have programed you with knowledge on how to pick your fights!" I cut of the arm and then jumped high to dodge a swing from the other Melee. "I'm unlike any enemy you've ever faced!" I shouted, delivering a kick to the side of its face. "I'm not your average person on Bionis! I'm not from the Bionis! I'm not from this world! And you know what that means?!"

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

"I'm Andrew Hindle, a citizen from another dimension, formally a human being! But that has changed. I'm no longer a human! But I'm not a Homs, Nopon, or a High Entia! I'm something else entirely!"

CLONG! The Melee Units were getting pissed. One of them socked me in the gut, causing me to flying back into the wall, and then I fell into the elevator shaft. Those damn machines were pretty eager to kill the shit out of me. As if.

"Still," I called out as I turned my body around in mid air to face the descending Mechons. "You get an A for your effort! So here's a consolation prize!" I placed my sword on my back and charged both my hands. "DESPAIR!"

BOOM!

The Melee Units exploded into large chunks of debris…that was raining down on top of me.

"Shit."

CRAAAAAAAAAASH!

I fell down to the floor with the rest of the Mechon debris piling on top of me. Various pieces of metal pierced my body with a burning sensation.

"OOOOOOOOOWWWWWWWW!"

"ANDREW!" I heard Melia cry out.

"Andrew! Are you alright?!" Dunban called.

"Yeah…yeah…just…agh…a little uncomfortable here…hang on a sec…RGH!"

SLASH!

I managed to cut myself out of the junk pile with my sword, and staggered out. Melia and Tyrea let out a horrified gasp when they all the various pieces of metal sticking out of me.

"Don't worry," I reassured them. "This stuff's not going to kill me." I then yanked out a large metal rod that was sticking out of my gut. "AGH! Hurts like crap though."

"Awwww, poor thing," Tyrea said. "Let me help you with that." Tyrea then quickly ran over to my side.

"M-me too!" Melia said nervously as she joined her sister.

As the girls helped me fix my self, the others took a look at where we were.

"Oi, guys!" Reyn exclaimed. "Look!"

We all turned to what Reyn found, and saw a whole bunch of Xord Mechons with their spears. It looked like we were in some kind of Face Mechon hanger.

"Spear ones!" Riki shouted anxiously. "Loads and loads of spear Mechon!"

It was kinda creepy the way they were just hanging there. It's like that feeling you get when you see this one statue that gives you the willies, making you think that it could just start moving at any time. However…

"Hmm…" I grinned, getting an awesome idea. With a snap of my fingers I opened a Time Gate behind one of the Xord Mechon's, breaking it off of its hanging position and sent it to the Timeless Void.

"What did you do that for?" Melia asked me with curiosity in her voice.

"An awesome idea I had for the future," I replied.

WREEN! WREEN! WREEN!

No later than that, an alarm started to blare.

"Uh, Andrew please tell me your parlor trick didn't cause that," Tyrea said nervously.

"I don't think so," I replied with the same amount of nervousness in my voices. "At least, I hope it didn't." I really didn't think a Face Mechon falling off of its mount in the hangar was that big of a deal to sound an alarm. It was probably my overkill of the two Melee Units that tipped the base off. If Egil didn't know we were here already, he definitely knew now. Suddenly, what I thought to be a golden plated wall suddenly opened up, revealing it to be a door. And on the other side of that door was Fiora's Nemesis Mechon frame.

"It's Fiora!" Shulk said in shock and relief. If there was ever any Faced Mechon that Shulk was glad to see, it was Nemesis.

Unfortunately, the feeling didn't appear to be mutual. Nemesis, for the first time ever, drew out her weapons, to scimitar swords, and aimed for Shulk. Everyone let out a gasp of surprise.

"Fiora?!" Shulk couldn't believe he was seeing this.

"Shulk!" I yelled, jumping to my feet. I dashed as fast as I was able and shoved him to the side, quickly drawing my sword and parried Fiora's swing. She tried to strike with one of the other blades, but I caught it using Death's Hand, and tried to shift the force of my arm against the force of her blade. Needless to say, it was heavy. "This is an outcome…I was not expecting…" I grunted.

"Stop!" Dunban shouted to his sister. "Don't you recognize Shulk?! Fiora!"

I did find it strange that Fiora would suddenly attack us on a whim like this. Either someone else was piloting Nemesis, or it was being controlled from a remote location. Whatever the reason, I had a gut feeling that Egil had something to do with it.

"Fiora!" Shulk cried out in desperation. "Please! Don't you remember us at all?!"

Nemesis's only response was putting some unexpected force into her sword, shattering my Death's Hand, and slicing off my left arm. "AAAGH!" I staggered backwards in pain and fell flat on my back. Nemesis then tried to slice me down the middle, but I was ready this time and blocked it with my sword in my remaining arm. I then pushed Nemesis's blade away, jammed the point of my sword in the ground behind me, summoned a spectral form of my foot, performed a back flip with the handle of my sword as a support, and kicked the Nemesis frame in the jaw section. This sent her staggering back a few steps, clutching her face, while I ended up back on my feet, and respawned my left arm.

"It's no good, Shulk" I said. "I don't think she's listening. Actually, considering the situation we're in right now, it's probably safe to say that we've outstayed our welcome."

"Andrew's right," Melia added. "We came here to rescue Fiora, not confront her."

"Then it's time to retreat!" said Dunban.

"Got it!" Reyn agreed.

"Understood," Sharla as well.

There was a bridge off to our left. We started to run there. All of us but Shulk, who just stood there as Nemesis began to advance towards him. "Shulk! Move it!" I shouted to him. This caused Shulk to come back to reality, running as fast as his feet would carry him to the bridge. Unfortunately, Nemesis, didn't appear to be too keen on letting us get away.

She fired he jets and flew after us, firing a blue bolt of plasma energy. The shot flew right over us, but I don't think we were her intentional targets. Instead the shot flew over our heads and struck the other side of the bridge. The explosion echoed throughout the room as the opposite end of the bridge started collapse, and the floor under our feet started to tilt forward.

"Oooooohhhhhhhhhhh SHIIIIT!" I yelled. Everyone started to yell out in shock and fear as we all started to plummet to the ground. Riki caught Reyn and Sharla with his tiny arms as he desperately flapped his paws to slow down their descent. Tyrea was okay because she was able to fly with her wings. Can't say the same for Melia, cuz her wings were too small. As she was falling I reacted quickly, catching her by the left hand with my right, and the jammed my sword into what was left of the bridge to slow our decent. Shulk and Dunban mimicked my action with their swords. Considering how I first came into this world, I'm pretty sure I could have survived that fall if it were just me. But with Melia in my hand, that was a different story.

Melia and I had almost reached the bottom floor, when Nemesis decided to be a cheap ass and fired at my sword, blowing my sword out of the asphalt, sending it careening down towards the ground. "Oh, fuck me!" I yelled frustrated. I quickly pulled up Melia and placed her on top of me, back first.

"What are you doing?!" She shouted.

"Acting as a cushion!"

CRASH! THUD!

"GAAAACKHH!"

Needless to say, I've had softer landings. Definitely nowhere near as bad as when I first showed up in Alcamoth, but still.

"Ohhhh...my back…again…"

"Are you alright?" Melia asked me with worry in her voice.

"As long as you didn't get any broken bones, then yeah, I'm good," I wheezed.

WHOOSH! SHANG!

Something had impaled the ground right next to us.

"Oh, there's my sword," I said rather nonchalantly. As Melia got off of me and got up and retrieved my sword, I turned to Shulk. "Shulk, I think we'd better come up with a new plan of action."

"He's right," Reyn agreed. "We ain't gonna last long here!"

But Shulk wasn't about to give up. He just looked up at where we fell. "Fiora!" He yelled. "Try and remember! It's us!"

No response for a few seconds. Then…

"I pity you."

It was not Fiora's voice.

"Aside from the help of the outsider, without the power of that sword, I doubt you would ever have made it this far."

Outsider? Did that mean me? Wait, I knew that voice…was that…?

"Guys!" I shouted. "It's Egil! He's found us!"

"Indeed I have," his voice echoed behind me all of a sudden. This caused me to jump and turn around. There he was. The Golden Mechon. "Apocrypha, activate." Egil's Mechon suddenly started to glow a deep blue.

"What is…?" Shulk wondered aloud.

Suddenly we were blinded by a bright flash of blue and gold. And a few seconds afterwards, when my eyes had adjusted, the Monado had stopped working completely. Shulk tried desperately to activate it again, but it was no good. It wasn't responding.

"Oi, what's going on?!" Reyn said, confused. "What's happened to the Mondado?!"

Things only got worse from there. Nemesis then dropped down with a whole army of Mechon. One of them aimed at Reyn but Shulk saw it coming.

"Look out!" he shouted, shoving Reyn aside. The Mechon then slashed at Shulk's back, cutting his jacket and drawing blood.

"Shulk!" Reyn yelled in horror.

"I'm…I'm okay." It was the truth. His cut wasn't too deep, but there was still a lot of blood coming out.

"You're gonna pay for that!" I roared, charging at the Mechon that attacked Shulk. "YAAAAAAAAAAHH!" The Mechon didn't even get the chance to retaliate. I split it vertically down the middle with my sword. Three more kept charging at me from all sides, but it was useless. One by one I cut them all down.

"Most impressive," Egil observed from the sidelines. "For you to be able to cut down Mechon so effortlessly without the Monado; you must be this boy in blue I've heard about."

I turned to face Egil, a little surprised that he knew about me. "Didn't know I had a rep on Mechonis."

"I only know what Metal Face told me," Egil replied. "Tell me, is it true that you are neither from Bionis and Mechonis?"

"So what if I am? What's it to you?"

"Curiosity, I suppose."

"Well pardon me for being rude, but considering the situation I'm currently in right now, I'm really not in the mood for Twenty Questions."

At this point, Nemesis was advancing towards us, point one of her swords at Shulk.

"Fiora!" Dunban shouted as he bravely approached Nemesis. "Stop this right now! How could you? Shulk came here to save you!"

Dunban must've finally been getting through, because after that, Nemesis's joints started to shake a little, as though she were struggling against something.

"Do you hear me, Fiora?!" Dunban continued to shout.

Nothing for a few seconds. Then, Nemesis slowly turned her head away from us. "Y-you…you must run…" Fiora finally spoke. But she sounded like she was having difficulty with something. The cockpit of Nemesis then opened up, revealing Fiora.

"Fiora!" Shulk shouted.

Fiora appeared to be trying to force herself out of Nemesis, but she was being held back by some kind of invisible force.

"Fiora…or whoever you are…" Shulk was still trying to talk to her.

"Please, run!" Fiora shouted in desperation. "The machine is…not under my control!"

"Not under your control?" Shulk repeated in shock.

"I thought so," I said out loud. That would explain why she attacked us out of the blue. "Probably one of Egil's dirty tricks." The cockpit of Nemesis then forced itself shut.

"Most surprising," Egil said, as if to prove my point. "I admit, I never expected such resistance to becoming a Face." Egil then touched down onto the ground.

"Egil…" Fiora tried to speak against him.

"Okay, jack ass!" I shouted pointing my sword at Egil. "What the hell did you do to her?!"

"I will answer your question only if you answer the one I asked about you," Egil replied.

I gritted my teeth in irritation. "Rgh, fine! Yes, I'm neither from the Bionis or the Mechonis. Believe it or not, that's your choice, but I'm from another dimension."

"While I'm skeptical of the matter," Egil responed. "I do not deem it as impossible. Now, to answer your question. From the moment of their creation, all Mechon are mine to control. Should a passenger defy me, I force it to obey."

"Dick move, dude," I criticized.

"Your insults will have no effect on me," Egil replied. "Now, another question. Metal Face said that he killed you over and over again, and yet, here you stand. Why is that?"

"Honestly, I couldn't say," I answered honestly. "I'm still trying to figure that part out myself. I can tell you that I wasn't born with this power. It kinda started happening after I came to this world. And as for how I came to this world, that's a really long story. Not one I have time for."

"Fair enough," said Egil.

"Alright, my turn to ask!" Shulk said irritably. "Why make Homs into Mechon?! Why are you making them attack Bionis?!"

"If you wish to know," Egil replied. "You have only to submit yourself to me. All will become clear when you attack Bionis with a new body born of Mechonis."

"Never!" Shulk shouted angrily. "Who would ever submit to you?!"

"Forget about him," Dunban said, attempting to calm down Shulk. "We have to get out of here."

"But…" Shulk protested. "But what about Fiora?"

"If you guys die here today, you'll never get her back," I told him.

"Choose!" Egil commanded us. "I have rendered the Monado useless. You have no hope of victory or escape."

"Ahem," I cleared my throat. "Um, hello? Standing right here, thank you very much."

Egil turned to look at me. "Even if you can survive an onslaught of Mechon, I doubt your friends can."

Shit. He was right. I mean, I could try and protect them, but there's just one of me, and I'm the only one who can get stabbed and crushed and still come out in one piece.

"You chunk of scrap!" Reyn yelled. "So it was you who did that to the Monado!"

"Yeah, that reminds me," I added. "How did you manage to do that?"

"Since I have no further questions about you, I will answer," Egil replied. "The Monado is a tool that regulates the waves of the very ether from which the world is formed. Therefore, it can be counteracted simply by releasing opposing waves."

Just like interfering radio signals.

"But how can you…" Shulk started to say.

"The questions end here!" Egil interrupted. "Hand over the Monado. After all, it is no longer of use to you."

"You're lying!" I shouted. "If the Monado really is as useless as you claim it to be, then why would you want it? Face it pall! You're never gonna get your hands on it!"

"Then make your choice," Egil responded, readying his Mechon in a battle stance. "Be crushed by my fist, or slain by your old friend."

He and Nemesis dashed straight for us.

"TIME EATER!" I shouted with a snap of my fingers. Immediately, the Time Eater appeared behind me and blocked them off with its bare hands.

"What?!" Egil exclaimed.

"I knew it," Fiora said. "This power…it's him!"

" _Who's 'him'"?_ I thought. _"Is she talking about Time Eater?"_

With a loud roar, the Time Eater then pushed Nemesis and Egil away from us a few yards.

"Thanks, big guy," I said. "Dismissed."

The Time Eater then vanished. Immediately after, I snapped my fingers and summoned my latest acquisition. The Xord Face I stole.

"A Face unit?!" Fiora exclaimed.

"How did you get that?!" Egil shouted.

"Stole it, duh." I jumped up to the Face's torso. "Knew this would be a good idea. Now…how do I get this thing open-"

CRANK!

"Okay, there we go!" I pried open the cockpit doors with my hands. Maybe a little too hard, cuz I nearly broke them. I got into the seat, and then the Face's system roared to life as the cockpit closed. It was dark inside for a few seconds but then it was lit up with a whole bunch of holographic screens, giving me a view of the outside. "Alright, let's see what this bad ass mo fo can-"

"ERROR. INCOMPATIBLE PASSENGER."

"Oh, go to hell ya piece of shit!" I said, slamming my fist into the ceiling. I think I might have inadvertently released a surge of my power when I hit it, cuz it kinda coursed through the entire frame. Made the system stutter a bit until…

"PASSENGER ACCEPTED. PREPARING BLOOD LINK."

"O…kay…not sure what I just did, but…wait, what did it just say?"

A whole bunch of cables popped out of my seat and stabbed me in the back of the head and all over my body.

"OW, FUCK! The hell is…oh right, blood circulation. Well, I don't have any blood…so, let's see how this works as a substitute."

With the cables acting as a conductor, I channeled my power from my body, through the cables, and into the Mechon. Immediately, instead of a whole bunch of pulsing red lights like the other Faces, purple lights started to glow and pulse. I tested out the Mechon by moving the arms, fingers and legs around a bit. They worked perfectly.

"Awwww, hell yeah! This is gonna be awesome!" I yelled excitedly. It was then I noticed that I was still carrying a poison spear. "Huh. Don't wanna risk hitting the other's with this. So, Imma chuck it." I then threw the spear at Egil, who apparently was too dumb struck by watching me work a Face to even attack me, only for the result to be him snapping back to reality and bashing it away with the back of his had, sending it into the wall behind him. But this gave me an opening advantage. I fired the jets and dashed right at Egil, throwing a punch at him. He blocked it of course, and then just shoved me backwards a few feet.

"Guys!" I shouted to every one through the speaker. "Protect Shulk! Take down any Mechon that you are able to! I'll handle Egil!"

"But…what about Fiora?!" Reyn asks. "What if she attacks you?!"

"If she does, I'll have to defend myself," I responded grimly, as I whipped out the my Face's hammer "I promise to hold back though."

And with that I began my attack by dashing at Egil once again. "YAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!"

"Nemesis," ordered Egil.

At his order, Nemesis then dashed in front of me to intercept my attack. It took a second for me to react, but I did manage to disengage the jets and slow down. Not before Nemesis's blades clashed with my hammer.

"Ah, you fucking coward!" I shouted. It really pissed me off that he was using Fiora as a shield.

"Pardon me if this isn't the time," Fiora said as we continued to clash swords. "But I must say that I am impressed that you are able to pilot a Face Mechon without having a Mechon body."

"Thanks," I replied. "Guess this is just another perk of having a seemingly immortal body. Speaking of which, if this shit wasn't going on right now, I was actually hoping to ask you some questions about myself, since you seem to be the only one who's got a clue as to what the hell's happening to me."

"Wait…you mean…he hasn't spoke to you…?" Fiora asked.

"I can only assume you mean the Time Eater when you say 'him.' How do you know about that…?"

"Time Eater…hah…so that's what he's calling himself. Listen boy," Fiora said to me. "If it is answers you wish, I shall give them to you in time, but for now, I require assistance."

"Lemme guess, you need me to help you break free of Egil's control?" I asked.

"Yes," Fiora answered. "My power is limited in this form. I am unsure what would happen to this body if I were to unleash my full power."

What the hell did she mean by that? Questions for latter. "So, lemme guess…attack Egil?"

"Indeed, if you are able to distract him, that might weaken his hold on me. A task that will be near impossible I'm afraid. His Mechon is far superior from yours, or even mine."

"Lady," I smirked. "I don't know if you realized this," I blocked her swords again, this time with my Xord's right hand, and then socked Nemesis in the gut with the handle of my hammer, causing her to stagger a bit and kneel down. I then placed my hand on her shoulder, and with much effort, plus the help of my jet boosters, performed a forward flip over her frame. Sure glad I didn't have a stomach. After my Xord landed back on its feet, I finished my sentence. "I'm the literal embodiment of impossible."

Drop me the sunglasses.

Afterwards, I dashed at Egil again and swung my hammer, only to have him block it and push me back again. Just like I wanted him too. With a snap of my fingers, I opened up a Time Gate and let my momentum carry me though it. This left Egil once again dumbfounded.

"What?!" he exclaimed in sheer disbelief.

I then popped out through another Time Gate right behind Egil.

"Oley oley oxen, bitch!" I shouted and then slammed my hammer into his back.

"AAAAGH!" Needless to say, he wasn't expecting that. But it did kinda piss him off, cuz he responded by quickly turning around and grabbing my Mechon by the head. "KING BREAKER!" A bright bolt of blue energy filled my vision and then exploded, sending a huge jolt of electricity through both my Mechon and my body.

"WOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGHHHHHH!" It hurt like hell.

Egil then let go, sending me crashing to the ground. He then slammed his foot on my torso. "Your bravado will be your undoing," he said as he was readying another attack. "CATASTROPHE!" This time he created two blue energy orbs in his hands, slammed them together into one orb, and then threw it down on me.

"NNNNNGGGGGGGGYYYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!" As much as I was grateful to have a body that could just about withstand anything, I was not enjoying the shock therapy. Neither was my Mechon. That last attack fucked up its system pretty good. One more attack like that, and I'm liable to go up and ashes. I still wasn't ready to test weather or not I could survive being vaporized. So instead, I snapped my fingers and opened a Time Gate to the Timeless Void.

"I will not fall for the same trick twice," said Egil.

"This isn't the same trick," I replied. I blasted the cockpit open with a Chaos Shot. Surprisingly enough, that did manage to catch Egil off guard a second time, as the Chaos Shot managed to hit him in the face. I took this chance. As my Mechon was being pulled back into the Timeless Void, I jumped out of the cockpit and soared up to Egil with my right hand on my sword. "Die, you prick!" I shouted.

"Unlikely," Egil replied coolly, and just back hand bitch slapped me in mid jump and into a wall.

"Aaaaaaaahhh…instantly regretting that…" I slowly fell out of the wall and hard on the ground. If I still had a skeleton, I would have fractured several bones by now.

Egil, no longer deeming me as a threat, turned away and slowly walked towards Shulk and his friends, who were having a real chore against the other Mechon drones. "This is the end…heir to the Monado." Egil was readying another King Breaker. This looked like the end for Shulk and company. I was still racking stars from my head. There was no way I could have reacted in time.

"I won't let you do this, Egil!" Fiora's voice suddenly shouted. Her Nemesis suddenly roared to life and dashed towards Egil's Mechon. She tackled him, toppling over various Mechon drones in her wake. Nemesis started to bash her swords against Egil's Mechon, but his armor was incredibly durable.

"How dare you defy me!" he shouted furiously as he knocked away one of her swords. "Worthless machine!" He then punched her hard and sent her flying backwards into the same wall I got thrown into, and fell down right next to me.

"Fiora!" Shulk yelled in horror.

"Andrew!" Melia and Tyrea shouted, horrified as well.

"Still kickin'," I replied, just to let them know I was okay.

"Egil…" Fiora said as her Nemesis struggled to get back up on its feet. " No matter…how much…you yearn for revenge…I will not permit you to have your way!" The face mask on Nemesis suddenly flew up, revealing a pair of red glowing eyes, and a massive blast of red light shot forward. There was also some kind of aura that was being emmited from her too, and it was resonating with the orb in my chest.

" _Meyneth…"_ The same voice echoed inside my head. _"So it really was you."_

Meyneth? Who the hell was that? And why the hell did this power felt similar to mine?

"A Monado…" Egil muttered in shock. "But how…?"

Wait, _A_ Monado? Meaning there's more than one? Jesus Christ, how far down does this rabbit hole go? I didn't have time to think about this, because this "Monado" seemed to resonate with Shulk's. For a brief second, his eyes started to glow blue, despite the fact that Egil had supposedly shut the Monado down.

" _Oh, great,"_ I thought sarcastically, knowing that Shulk probably had another bad vision. _"Just what we need to top this fiasco off."_

"No! Stop!" Shulk shouted desperately at Fiora.

It was no use. Nemesis dashed at Egil, faster than ever before and clashed her swords against his armor. "Please…survive!" she shouted to all of us.

"You would die for them?!" Egil yelled in disbelief.

As if in response, the red light started to glow brighter.

"W-what is this?!" Egil exclaimed, still surprised as crap from this surge of power that came out of nowhere.

BOOM! There was a massive explosion that managed to push Egil out of the room and into the night sky.

"Fiora!" Shulk screamed in horror.

Things escalated from there. That explosion must've been pretty string, because it set off a whole chain reaction of explosions, shaking the entire fortress. Needless to say, as a collective, I think we might have gone a little overboard in this mission. Explosions still continued to right through the entire fortress. Pretty soon, the floor beneath our feet was starting to collapse.

"Not good!" Dunban shouted. "Let's get out of here!"

"Andrew!" Tyrea shouted. "Open a Time Gate out of here!"

"I can't concentrate with all theses explosions going off in my ears!" I shouted. "And even if I could where would I take you?! Sword Valley is still crawling with Mechon scouts, and there's no way Shulk's gonna leave…wait…where's Shulk?!" I had just noticed he had gone missing from the group.

"There he is!" Reyn yelled.

We all turned to see where Reyn was pointing. Shulk was slowly approaching Nemesis, careful not to fall through all the holes in the floor. No doubt he was trying to get Fiora out of there.

"Shulk!" Reyn yelled. "Get back here!"

"You're gonna get yourself killed!" I shouted.

But he wasn't listening. He just kept slowly advancing towards the friend that he missed so much. But just when he was within a few feet, the floor underneath Nemesis collapsed. The silver faced Mechon plummeted into the night sky below.

"FIORAAAAAAAAAA!" Shulk cried as he dived off the edge after her.

"No!" Reyn yelled in horror.

"That idiot!" I shouted in frustration. That was the last thing I remember before an explosion rang off right next to us, causing my vision to go dark.

…

Egil watched as Galahad Fortress crumbled into smithereens. He could not believe the events that transpired. First a Homs-like being that was able to freely pilot a Face without having a Mechon body. And then Nemesis breaking free of his King's Order control.

"The power of that Face…" he muttered to himself. He had witnessed that power before. And there was only one being in the entire world that held it. Only one other person who had a separate Monado of their own. "No…that is not possible…it cannot be!"

…

"The fortress has collapsed?!" Kallian exclaimed in shock. An imperial guard had just brought him news about Shulk and Andrew's attack on Galahad Fortress. "What of Melia?! And Shulk?! Andrew and Tyrea?! What happened to them?!"

"The observation was based solely on long-range intelligence," the guard replied regretfully. "We cannot be any more specific."

Kallian just grunted in annoyance.

"You don't need to worry about them," a husky voice spoke up.

Kallian looked over to his side and saw Dickson walking up to him. "But-" he began.

"Take it easy," Dickson interrupted, attempting to calm the young prince down. "I've got a pretty good idea where they are. And based on what you told me about Andrew, he sounds like a tough bloke. If he can survive getting impaled by a Mechon, I'm damn sure he can survive and explosion to the face. But still, if you're gonna attack, you'd better do it now while their crippled. Their fortress ain't completely destroyed. Or do we just sit here and wait to die."

There was a few seconds of still silence.

"Shall I perform the divination ritual now?" Alvis offered Kallian a glimpse into the future.

Kallian, however, just shook his head. "Forgive me, Seer," he said. "That will not be necessary. From now on, we will seize our destiny with your own hands."

"We don't need to see the future," Dickson agreed. "The Mechon forces are on their way. No doubt about it."

The prince then began running plans for how he should form the alliance in such a short notice of time. Dickson took note of how serious his face was.

"I like the look in your eye there, lad," Dickson complimented the princes dedication to his role. "It's time. This is war."

AN: And another chapter bites the dust. A little heads up for the next one. THERE IS GOING TO BE A LEMON SCENE! To those who have no taste for it, that's cool, just stop reading, or skip over the scene. And to those who dig lemons, this is my first time writing one. I only promise to try to make it good. STAY TUNED.


	12. Chapter 10-True Feelings Revealed

AN: Like I said before, THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A LEMON! So, if you're under the age of eighteen and reading this…well, there's not really a whole lot I can do to stop you. But even so, read at your own risk of being scared if you haven't been already. NEEEEEEXT!

Chapter Ten-True Feelings Revealed

 _Love can bloom in many ways on the field of battle._

My vision was blurry as my eyes opened. After a few seconds they adjusted. I was falling headfirst through the night sky down onto some kind of large island.

"This feels familiar," I said to myself, remembering how I first came into this world. "Welp, nothing left to do now except to wait until I crash land." Chances of my survival: take a wild guess. I decided to just relax until the pain of the impact rattled through my body. That is until my eyes fell upon Tyrea, who was falling several feet next to me.

"Uh oh," I said, realizing that she was still unconscious. Now, I'm no skydiving expert, so it was a little tricky to shift my momentum to get over to Tyrea. Apparently doing the breaststroke in mid air doesn't work like I thought it would, and on top of that, just made me look like a complete dumbass. Thank God no one else was around to see that. Anyways, after failing for about a minute, I suddenly remembered my "training" from Wii Sports Resort. All I had to do was just shift my weight in order to alter my trajectory. Who'd have thunk it? Suck it, mom! You can learn from video games!

But I digress. Once I had gotten over to Tyrea, I grabbed her by the shoulders. "Ty! Ty! Wake up!" Nothing. I tried shaking her some. "Come on, sleeping beauty! Rise and shine!" Still nothing. And the ground was getting very close. "Oh sweet salty Christ, please wake up Tyrea!" I shook her more, desperately trying to wake her up. No good. The ground was dangerously close now.

"No!" I shouted, hugging Tyrea's body close to mine. "No! I won't let this happen to you!" I didn't want to lose my friend! "I WON'T LET YOU DIE!" Through my desperation, I felt a surge of power flow threw my body, and I felt like my back was expanding. Suddenly, four purple wings with golden mechanical servos shot out of my back. The wings had octagons on them, kinda making them look like solar panels of some sort. Their sudden appearance did manage to break our fall, but they scared the shit out of me.

"WOAH! Ooookaaayy, that's new!" I tried flapping my wings to gain us some distance from the ground. "Whoo! Okay, now this is cool! Now how do I move around…" I tried shifting my weight around and straightened my wings out like a glider. "Okay, I'm flying baby! WHOOOO HOOOO!"

I slowly glided down towards the island, looking for a good spot to land. I spotted a nice large field of grass with a couple of trees. I decided to land us right there, so I swooped down, and gently landed on my feet. I carried Tyrea bridal style over to one of the trees and gently set he down gently with her back against the trunk. I took her wrist and put two of my fingers and placed them against them on the veins below her hand.

Thump thump. Thump thump.

Good. She still had a pulse. She was still alive. I step back a bit a looked down at her, watching the way her chest was slowly rising and falling with each breath she took. God, she had a nice ra—AH! Focus, Andrew, focus! Her breathing was steady, that's all I was worried about. Hookay…anyways, she and I were safe, so that was good. But…where was everyone else? What happened to them? Oh, man I really hope nobody died. Kallian was gonna give me so much shit if I failed as a body guard for Melia. As much as I wanted to go and search for the others, I couldn't just leave Tyrea here all by herself. But on the other hand, it would probably be best to build a fire and get some food. Thankfully we had landed near a pond, so I could go fishing in there for some food. As for firewood, as much as I hated to have to slice down some trees, I really didn't have any better ideas. Now, the only remaining problem was…

"How do I retract my wings? Do I just, think them away or…"

As soon as I said it, I thought about my wings vanishing, and then they did.

"Oh, okay."

…

I spent about half an hour getting firewood and catching fish. Afterwards I was working on cooking the fish. Wasn't too hard to star the campfire. I just found some small rocks and scraped them against my blade (which I had to clean the fish blood off of), make a few sparks, and boom, let there be a fire. I really didn't have any metal rods to put the fish on, y'know so I could grill them over the fire, cuz I left all of them back at the fortress. So I just used some tree braches as a substitute.

"Mmm…" I heard Tyrea groan. She was waking up.

"Oh thank God!" I said, dropping our dinner and running over to her. "Ty! Hey, you okay?"

"Uhhh…Andrew…?" Tyrea groaned. "What…what happened…?"

"Well, Galahad Fortress kinda went, boom, you and I were blown into the sky, we landed on some kind of large island below the titans, and you've been out for, as far as I can tell, about forty-five minutes."

"What?!" Tyrea shouted. "Where's my sister?! Where are the others?! What happened to them?!"

"Uhhh…I really don't know. I didn't see any of them around when we were falling. They probably got blown somewhere else on the island. At least, I really hope that's what happened and not the alternative."

"Why haven't you gone to look for them?"

"Because there was no way in hell that I was just going to leave you here by yourself while you were out cold. What would happen if a monster came by?"

"Well I'm awake now, so let's…" Tyrea was trying to get up, but she stumbled forward a bit. I caught her in my arms, which caused Tyrea's face to blush a little.

"No way," I said bluntly as I set her down. "Not until you get some rest and food."

As soon as I mentioned food, Tyrea's stomach growled loudly, causing her wings to flare up in embarrassment, and her face turned a deeper shade of red than it was earlier. "Alright…" she finally replied with a sigh.

"Good answer," I said, and went to get the fish I was cooking. "Here. I hope I didn't over cook it."

Tyrea took the fish off the stick and bit into it. "Mmm…this is actually good!" She exclaimed. "Andrew, I think you have a hidden talent for the culinary arts."

"I still think your just trying to flatter me, that or tease me, but I appreciate it all the same."

"Well," she replied with a sheepish grin. "Maybe a bit of both."

Hoooooooo boy she looks so damn hot in that armor—GAAAAHHH!

"Wait, hold on…you said we fell over a thousand feet in the air and survived?" Tyrea looked at me with shock. "Well, I suppose with you that would be possible, but how did I survive if I was unconscious?"

Oh thank God, change of subject.

"Well," I said, and then showed her my new wings.

"Oh my!" she exclaimed with shock. "When…when did you get those?!"

"While we were falling," I replied. "I was actually freaking out big time that you weren't waking up. We were getting dangerously close to the ground, and I really thought that you were going to die. I didn't want that to happen. I wouldn't let it happen. And then, through my desperation, these appeared."

Tyrea inched closer to me, reaching out her hands to touch them. I winced a little at her touch. It kinda tickled, having her touch a part of myself that I was just getting used to. The texture of her fingers felt smooth and kinda lukewarm. "They're wonderful…" Tyrea said in awe. "They feel like glass, but nowhere near as fragile. They feel incredibly strong." She then turned her gaze to me. "Just like you."

"Huh…?" I could feel my face burning red ever so slightly.

"You saved me…Andrew, you have done so much for me, and there are not nearly enough words I can say to show my gratitude," Tyrea slowly brought her arms around my neck and lowered me down to her.

"U-um…" I stuttered. This was a quick turn of events.

"When we first met…we were enemies…I was trying to destroy you…but then you showed me mercy…kindness…compassion…you offered me an entirely different view of the world, one that I could never even begin to imagine. And you've helped me reconnect with my sister. A feat that I never thought would be achieved in my life."

"We'll find her, Tyrea. I promise."

"I know we will. I know that you will do everything within your power to find her and the others. And I know that you will continue to do many other wonderful things in the future." Tyrea then brought her face close to mine. "Andrew…no one in my life has ever done even half of the things that you have done…for me or for my sister. You have given me so much. And there's nothing of any value that I have that I can give you to return the favor."

Tyrea then began to inch her face ever so close to mine, until our noses glided past each other.

"All I can give you…is this…"

And then…she pressed her pink lips against mine.

She was kissing me!

My mind raced to process what was going on. The orb in my chest started to pulse rapidly. I thought about pushing her away at first due to the suddenness of this situation. But…her breath…I could taste it…it tasted sweet…unlike anything I have ever tasted before…and her scent…her aroma…it smelled like the ripest of pomegranates. Within seconds, I submitted myself, and kissed back.

After about a minute, we parted, with her staring into my eyes, and me staring into her beautiful sapphire eyes that sparkled in the starlight. "And even that's not enough to show you my appreciation."

"T…Tyrea…" I stammered, still not to sure what had just transpired. "Why…?"

"Isn't it obvious?" She then slowly pushed me down on the ground with her lying on top of me. "I love you, Andrew," she whispered to me. "I love you so much…"

"I…uh…wow…I, uh…I'm…not really sure what to say about that…" I said, really at a loss for words here. "But…Tyrea…I…I'm from a different world…and I have a body that literally can't age…you and I are two entirely different people…I…I don't know if we can…"

I was cut off by Tyrea placing a finger on my lips. "Shhhh…" she whispered gently. "I don't care if you're from a different dimension, or if you're immortal. I just care that you're here, and that you're with me. I know that you're still looking for a way to go back home, and I know you want to save your world. But even if it's going to be for a short time, I'm glad that you came to this world. I'm glad I got to meet you. And trust me, Melia is too."

"Uh…wha…?"

She giggled at that. "That's. A. Sur. Prise," she said with a teasing smile.

I sighed. "Cocktease…ACK!" I just realized what I said.

"Oh?" She gave me sly grin. "Would you like that?"

"I…uh…" I walked right into that one.

Tyrea giggled at that. "You really are adorable." She leaned in and kissed me again.

This was the first time I had ever experienced kissing a girl. I mean, as I said before I did have a girlfriend, but she was psychotic, a drama queen, she used me, and it was kind of a long distance relationship. Meaning I never got to first base. Or second. And now I was kissing a gorgeous girl from another dimension with angel wings on her head. I will admit, in spite of the hell that I've been through, right now I was REALLY glad to have discovered an alternate dimension.

As Tyrea was still kissing me, she snaked her tongue into the cavern that was my mouth, and rubbed it along my tongue. I repeated the gesture, as I wrapped my tongue around hers. We explored the inside of each other's mouths, our tongues dancing together with passion and desire. I felt my mind going blank, as I began to submit to the wild side of myself. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pulled her closer to me. She did the same. Our bodies squirmed against each other, drunk on the warmth of our flesh. We couldn't get enough of ourselves. The both of us were in heat. We wanted more. We wanted each other.

After about two minutes of making out, Tyrea pulled herself away from me, panting for breath. "Hah…my goodness…you…wow…how long can you do that for without breathing…?"

"No lungs," I said with a loving smile. "Remember?"

Tyrea giggled at that. "Of course. I forgot about that." She then looked down at my pelvis area. "Hmmm…seems like someone enjoyed that quite a bit."

I followed the direction of her eyes and saw that one section of my pants was bulging upwards and making contact with Tyrea's belly button region. "Ugh, goddamn hormones!"

Tyrea laughed pretty hard at that. "Andrew, there's nothing to be ashamed of. You're a boy. It's normal for you to be like this." She then slowly lifted her self ever so slightly and moved down to my waist.

"U-uhhh…Ty…what are you doing?" I asked, rather nervously.

"Well," she replied with a smile. "You must feel very cramped down there. I'm just going to make you feel comfortable." She undid the button of my pants, and then unzipped my fly with the canines of her teeth. My underwear was exposed, the bulge inside it growing larger. "Well, looks like you feel more comfortable…but…" She bit the top of my underwear. "I wonder if I can make you feel better…" She then slowly pulled down my underwear with her teeth.

"Ah…" I groaned a bit, my erection springing free, lightly hitting her on the right side of her face.

"Ohhhhhh…Andrew…" Tyrea moaned. "Your manhood is absolutely splendid…!" She wasn't joking. My cock had grown…at least an inch or two. It was definitely bigger than I remember it being. Tyrea then inhaled deep through her nose. "Aaaaaahhhhh…your scent…this smell…oh, it's intoxicating…" she moaned in pleasure.

"Well, that's probably because I have had a shower in a few days," I deadpanned.

Tyrea giggled some more. "I never said it was a bad smell. In fact…" She then gently kissed the tip of my member, causing me to groan a bit, and my cock to twitch. "I can't get enough of it." She then gently placed her elegant fingers on my length and began to stoke it gently. This sensation I was feeling was way different then the feeling I usually get when I'm masturbating. Like, the complete opposite. Feeling a girl's hand on it was…ah, man, I'm not sure I even have the right words for it.

Tyrea's fingers were soft and warm, and her grip was strong and firm, but at the same time gentle. She kept stroking me with her hand for about a minute, and then looked up at my face, which I can only imagine the expression I was showing. Whatever face I was making must have amused her, because she was giving me a rather seductive smile. "Heehee, are you enjoying this?"

"Ah…uh…well…compared to being stabbed in the chest…yeah…this is…definitely better…"

"I take it you never had this done to you before?"

"…N-no…" I replied, a little embarrassed.

"Heehee. Well then," Tyrea said. "I'm glad to be the first person to have done this for you."

Tyrea then stopped stroking and then slowly started to lick my shaft from the bottom up. I groaned in pleasure from the sensation. Her tongue was warm, soft, and slippery. It felt incredible. Tyrea gave my dick five good licks, and then…she swallowed it whole, bringing her face right up to my pelvis. My eyes widened in shock, my mind blank with ecstasy. The inside of her mouth was insane! Just like her tongue, it was wet and slippery, but it was also warm and tight. Her lips were squeezing me like the end of a latex glove, and her tongue was cradling the bottom of my shaft.

Tyrea made a muffled moaning sound that was filled with pleasure. Her voice vibrated against my cock, making it expand inside her mouth. She then started to slowly bob her head up and down, making a bunch of lewd slurping noises with her mouth. Tyrea's suction was gentle but strong. She was a carnivore, savoring the meat she had captured. She was the predator, and I, her prey. I can't say that I wasn't enjoying it though. That'd make me a liar. Tyrea started out slow at first, then gradually increased her pace, bringing me closer to the edge.

"Aaaahhh…! T…Tyrea…!"

Tyrea let off to speak to me. "Are you going to cum?" She asked me gently.

"A-ah…yeah…"

"Well then," she replied as she undid her breastplate, letting it fall to the ground exposing her large bare breasts. "Cum…as much as you want to." She leaned back down and sandwiched my cock between her breasts, which were smooth, warm and soft as silk. "Release it all in my mouth. Hold nothing back." Tyrea then continued to suck on my manhood, harder, rougher, and faster this time. My dick increased in thickness, twitching and throbbing violently inside her mouth, until…

"Ahhhhh…uurrghh!" I grunted, grabbing the back of her head and pulled her face down hard onto my waist, thrusting my rod into the deepest part of her throat and I ejaculated hard. My feelings of ecstasy came to its climax as I continued to pump semen down into her throat. Tyrea made a rather cute squeal of shock as I came, and her eyes widened with surprise. But she made no attempt to resist. After a moment, she closed her eyes and moaned in pleasure as she received the white stream that was being poured into her mouth.

My orgasm lasted for approximately twenty seconds, the most I ever came in my life. When I was done, Tyrea slowly slipped my dick out of her mouth puckering her lips as she glided off, and released me with a kiss. She then swallowed all that I had given her down her throat. "Aaaaahhhhh…wow…that was…quite a load…"

The only answer I had was my panting. I definitely wasn't tired, because I was still rock hard but my mind was reeling from the amazing pleasure I had just experienced. Despite that, I felt like I could go for several more rounds.

"Oh my…" Tyrea noticed my still erect dick. "Andrew…wow…you're amazing…"

"Thanks," I said, grunting as I got myself upright. "I…wow…I don't even feel tired…wonder if that's another plus for having a body like this…"

Tyrea licked her lips in a seductive manner. "Well, if it is, I must say that your body is truly incredible…aaahhhhh…" Tyrea then began rubbing the area between her legs. "More…" she moaned, lowering her waist onto mine. "I want more…" She then began to rub against my member with the under armor of her suit still on, panting with anticipation all the while.

I groaned in pleasure, fighting against the urge to just pin Tyrea down and fuck the hell out of her, which probably wouldn't have bothered her so much, but I'm a person, not a savage in heat.

Thankfully this was all interrupted by the sound of something exploding. It sounded like it was very close by.

"Uhhhh...we should probably go see what that was," I said, still feeling both happy and awkward from the recent turn of events.

"Awwww," Tyrea pouted. "Just when we were getting intimate…"

I sat up and surprised her with another deep kiss. She gave a cute moan of satisfaction and returned the gesture. We broke off after a few seconds. "If we have the time, we can continue, if that's what you want," I said. "But I do want to know what you meant about that thing with Melia feeling the same about something."

Tyrea giggled. "Andrew, I love you to death, but you can be quite dense sometimes."

I gave her a raised eyebrow. "Huh?"

Tyrea then gave me a peck on the cheek. "Don't think about it too much, cutie."

I chuckled at that and we both smiled at each other for a bit.

God, she's beautiful.

" _Okay Andrew, focus,"_ I thought to myself as I got up and pulled my pants back on. I grabbed my sword, sheathed it on my back in a stylish manner (I'll be honest, after what just happened, I was feeling really good about myself) dusted myself off, then turned to face Tyrea, whom was looking at me with a dreamy expression.

"Ready, handsome?" she asked.

"Better believe it," I said with somewhat of a cocky tone. "Let's rock, babe!"

…

Shulk was not having a good time. He finally was able to reunite with his dear friend Fiora and reconnect with her, but then they got ambushed by two Mechon units. With Fiora still recovering from her crash-landing, Shulk was the only one able to fight. Thankfully, he finally was able to re-activate the Monado through the strength of his own will, but it was really draining the hell out of him. It also didn't help that immediately after Shulk had taken the two Mechon down, two more swopped in out of nowhere, an Offensive Security Unit, and an Offensive Seeker Unit. Panting heavily, Shulk readied the Monado for one more go. But then…

"Shulk!" a familiar voice cried out.

Shulk turned to his left and saw Reyn and Sharla running towards him.

"Reyn!" Shulk shouted, happy to see that two of his closest friends were still alive.

"I've got your back!" Reyn said as he and Sharla readied their weapons. "We'll turn them into scrap!"

"Right!" Shulk responded. "MONADO ENCHANT!" Shulk activated one of his trusty Monado Arts causing Reyn and Sharla's weapons to become enveloped in a purple aura. But immediately after, Shulk collapsed from exhaustion. Forcing the Monado to work would deffinitly take some getting used to. Noticing that their team mate was down, Reyn charged at the Mechon to defend his friend, with Sharla firing a few shots at the Mechon to get their attention.

"METAL BLAST!"

BANG!

Sharla fired an armor piercing bullet at the Offensive Seeker Unit, penetrating it's back. It turned around to face Reyn who was charging right at it.

"WILD DOWN!" Before the Mechon had time to react, Reyn rammed his Pile Driver into its torso and slammed it into the ground. "SHIELD BASH!" He then bashed the Mechon in the head with the flat side of his weapon. "Sharla! Now!"

"Got it! HEADSHOT!" Sharla fired off a round into the Mechon's head, causing it to explode. The Mechon gave out one last Mechanical groan, and then collapsed.

"Nice one!" Reyn exclaimed. But he really didn't have time to celebrate, because the Offensive Security Unit started to charge at him.

"Reyn! Behind you!" Shulk yelled.

Reyn turned around just in time to see the Mechon charging at him. Reacting quickly, he put up the shield on his pile driver and blocked the Offensive Security Unit's attack. Sharla was about to pick it off with another Metal Blast when…

"BOOOONNNZAAAAAAAIIIII!"

That was a voice they all knew too well. Immediately, everyone looked up in the sky to see Andrew and Tyrea drop down with their weapons at the ready. With his beloved saber in his right hand, Andrew swung it downward toward the remaining Mechon. He landed on the ground with a huge THUD and the Mechon was immediately split in two by Andrew's blade. The Mechon's circuits and servos crackled with electricity as both halves fell, not able to function anymore.

"You guys were having a party, and you didn't even invite and Ty?" Andrew joked with a grin, with Tyrea touching down right next to him. "I'm hurt, guys."

…

"Andrew! Tyrea!" Shulk said, looking relieved to see us. "You're alive!"

"Well of course HE'S alive," Tyrea quipped. "My darling can survive anything, can't you?" She then pecked me on the cheek, causing me to blush madly.

"Whoa," Reyn said. "Okay, where did that come from?"

"Did something happen between you two?" Sharla asked.

"That's a story for another time," I replied, not wanting to get into the embarrassing details. "Right now…SHULK!" I ran over to him and wrapped him in a tight hug. "Aaaaaaaahhhh, good to see you, ya reckless dumbass!"

"Aaaahh…thanks…I guess…?" Shulk said, finding it hard to breath from me crushing his ribs. I immediately eased up on him after hearing his response.

"Good to see you're okay," I said.

"Yeah, thanks to you, Reyn and Sharla."

"Reyn!" a female voice called out. "Reyn, it's you!"

We all turned to where the source of the voice came from. It was Fiora, finally walking on her own two feet. But her voice sounded…kinda different.

"Fiora!" Reyn said, shocked. "She remembered us!"

"Wait, so she's back to normal?" I asked.

"Yeah," Shulk replied. "She's been through a lot."

At those words, Reyn kept eyeing Fiora's Mechon body up and down, getting a good look at her for the first time in a long time. "I can see…"

…

Several minutes passed with introductions. Shulk introduced Fiora to me, Tyrea and Sharla. Fiora welcomed us all with a very warm and friendly smile, saying that it was very nice to meet us. When Shulk started to explain to Fiora about the fact that I was a special case, being that I was from another dimension and whatnot, she cut off Shulk, saying that already knew about it while someone else was using her body. A eyebrows rose at that, and Shulk explained that, according to Fiora, there was another personality inside of her. Everyone but me found that hard to believe. I explained to them, Sharla especially, that in my world, there is a condition that is rare, but not unheard of, called split-personality disorder. I said that it's essentially a case where more than one person is present within one body. Fiora explained that she felt the person within her wanted to help end the battle between the Homs and the Mechon, and that she wanted to help her with it, even if it meant using her body.

I asked Fiora if I could talk to the other person to see if I could finally get some answers about myself. Unfortunately, Fiora said that she's resting right now, and she wasn't really sure how to call her freely. I was a bit disappointed, but I didn't really complain about it. For the most part I was glad that some of my friends had survived the fall from the fortress.

"That just leaves Dunban, Riki, and Mel," I thought out loud. "If you guys were able to survive, then I'm pretty sure they're okay too."

"Yeah," Reyn agreed. "I bet he'll be blubbering at the sight of us." That last part was said as a joke. One which Fiora started laughing at.

"I don't think he'd ever cry in front of you three," Fiora quipped.

"So he does cry?" Shulk said, as though one of his lifelong questions had been answered.

"Gonna go out on a limb here and say he only does it when no one's looking," I guessed.

"Yep," the Mechon girl answered. "He's always been like that. He's a big softy, but he hates anyone seeing it."

"Huh," Shulk pondered. "I never knew…"

Reyn had his doubts after knowing Dunban for so long. "Nope!" he said. "I don't believe it."

"I never did understand why males always needed to feel like they have to keep their emotions under wraps," Tyrea input.

"It's called a man's pride Ty," I replied. "Dudes like us always want to show that we can tackle even the most trying task with little fear or worry."

Tyrea snuggled next to me. "But you're a male, and you never seem to hide your emotions. At least not often."

"Well, that's because the whole man's pride thing is a stereotypical thought of men, and stereotypes are bullshit."

"Well said," Sharla complemented me as she and Fiora got up on their feet. "Take it easy," she said to Fiora, worried about her condition.

"I'm okay," Fiora replied. "I want to see my brother. Let's go, Shulk."

Taking that as our cue to get ready, we all got up on our feet. "Shulk," I said. "As any monsters up ahead go, you leave the heavy weight stuff to me, Reyn, and Tyrea. At least until we get the Monado fixed up." I had learned from Shulk that he was still able to activate the Monado through sheer force of will. An impressive feat considering the length that Egil went to shut it down, but it drained the hell out of him.

"Yeah," Reyn agreed with me. "And Fiora, if you can't walk, I'll carry you."

"I'm much heavier now," she said.

"I've been pumping my guns!" Reyn exclaimed as he flexed his muscles.

Sharla gave a pitiful sigh at this, but she had a smile on her face nonetheless.

"I can see!" Fiora said, giggling a little. "Reyn, you really looked after Shulk for me."

Reyn scratched the back of his head, a little embarrassed at what Fiora said. "Well…I'd like to think that, but it feels more like he's the one who's been protecting me."

"That's not true!" Sulk exclaimed defensively.

Actually it was kinda true from both perspectives. Yes, Shulk's visions has saved the crew more times than I can count, but when the Monado was down for the count, Reyn and I stepped in as security.

"It's okay," Reyn reassured. "I know it, you know it. I'm not here to protect you anymore."

"But you're here for something," Sharla added.

"Yeah, otherwise you wouldn't be stickin' around like glue," I quipped.

Reyn laughed at that. "Yeah, I'm here for what I did just now," he said. "It don't matter how strong you get, you ain't got eyes in the back of your head. So I've got your back, Shulk!"

Shulk was completely baffled. "Reyn…you…"

"Reyn, you're like a whole new person," Fiora complimented.

"What do you mean by that," Reyn asked confused.

"I mean, it's good you've become so dependable," replied Fiora.

I just broke down laughing. Reyn really set himself up for that one.

"Was I that un-dependable before?" Reyn asked, a little hurt.

"Dude," I said between laughs. "I think she meant it as a compliment, so you might as well take it."

Reyn laughed a little and then smiled at Fiora. "You haven't changed a bit. What would we do without you?" 

"Get yourself into something that's way out of your league?" Tyrea teased.

"Correct me if I'm wrong but, aren't we already doing that with the Mechon and what not?" I input. "I mean, let's face it, doing things out of our league is basically in our job description." Tyrea just shrugged with a smile.

"Right, let's go," said Fiora. "You wanna see my brother cry, don't you?"

"Yeah!" Reyn exclaimed. "Wouldn't miss it!"

AN: Yeah, sorry I haven't been updating recently. I had Finals and Christmas preparations to deal with. But now I'm on break, or what's left of it at least. So I hope to get done one or two more chapters during the break before I have to go back. Also, I hope you enjoyed the lemon for those of you who wanted to read it. That was my first time writing one, so I hope it turned out okay. STAY TUNED!


	13. Chapter 11-The Machina

AN: Okay, so I wasn't able to hold my promise on getting a new chapter out before the end of the break, and for that I'm really sorry. Once again I had another writer's block and had to deal with it in some form or another. For me it was playing Kingdom Hearts I.5 HD ReMix. Yeah, I bought myself a pre-owned PS3 over the break. I know, I am really slow in catching up with the latest trends in technology, but I'd like to consider that as a blessing in some way, cuz I think it prevents me from getting overly obsessed with it.

But anyways, enough mindless babbling. NEEEEEEEXT!

Chapter Eleven-The Machina

 _Who says a machine has no soul?_

"Hold on. You can fly now?" Sharla asked me, with disbelief in her voice.

"Sounds like you don't believe me," I replied.

"Well…no, I'm not saying that but…just being able to do that out of the blue sounds…slightly ridiculous."

"Even more ridiculous that a boy who has premonitions of the future and the power to change it, or an guy who's from another dimension and seemingly immortal?" I deadpanned.

Sharla had to think about that for a moment. "Well, when you throw all of those details into the picture, then it doesn't sound as ridiculous."

We all got a good chuckle from that.

"So, what's it feel like to fly?" Reyn asked me.

"Pretty sweet," I said. "Now I can spare myself another embarrassing landing the next time I cross between dimensions."

Everyone laughed even harder at that, especially Tyrea. Everyone had told her about how I ended up in Alcamoth, much to my discontent. When they did, Tyrea flew in to one of the most outrageous laughing fits I had ever seen. I didn't expect someone who was a serious as Tyrea to laugh like that.

I groaned inwardly, but smiled at the same time while everyone was laughing.

"Wait, what happened?" Fiora asked curiously.

Oh right. Fiora didn't know how I ended up in this world.

"I um…kinda came into this world, so to speak, falling from the sky-"

"Completely stark naked!" Reyn finished.

Fiora's eyes widened in shock and surprise. "Wow…that's just…wow." She said, practically at a loss for words.

"Ugh, thanks for that Reyn," I said.

"Aww, don't feel so bad about it," Tyrea tried to cheer me up. She then leaned in closer to my ear and whispered seductively to me. "I quite like what your hiding underneath there." She then proceeded to nibble on my ear. As much as I liked the gesture, this wasn't the time or place for that. So I had to gently push her away.

"Ty, Ty, not in front of the others okay?" I said.

Tyrea just giggled, but I think she understood. The others however were giving the both of us really weird looks.

"Okay, are you going to tell us what the hell happened between you two?" Reyn asked.

"Umm…" was all I could say before Tyrea interrupted me.

"We spent some quality time together before we were rudely interrupted by all of that noise you four were making."

I could feel my face redden as she emphasized the word "quality." "Uhhh…yeah, let's go with that."

Sharla's eyes widened at the embarrassment in my voice. I guess she caught on what Tyrea was hinting about. "Oooookaaayyy, so let's go ahead and change the subject now."

"What? Why?" Reyn asked with a rather confused tone. Clearly he hadn't put two and two together.

"Hold on!" Fiora suddenly said as she signaled us to stop walking.

"What is it?" asked Shulk.

"I can hear something," the half Mechon girl replied.

There was a few seconds of silence as we all tried to listen to whatever it was that Fiora was hearing. But there was nothing but silence.

"What?" Sharla asked. "I can't hear anything."

"No, wait," I suddenly said. "I think Fiora's right, something's coming this way."

"You can hear it too?" Fiora asked me.

"Well, no…not exactly, but…I can sense some kind of life energy," I replied. "Kind of like how I could sense Ty following us back on Valak Mountain. But, wait, how are you hearing something and we're not?"

"Maybe our sense of hearing isn't strong enough," Shulk reasoned.

That actually made sense. Fiora was part Mechon now; so all five of her senses might have gone through some upgrades.

"Low sounds," Fiora described what she was hearing to us. "More than one."

"Yeah, I'm sensing…three…no, four presences," I said, narrowing down the numbers for us, just in case things got nasty. "Stay on guard guys," I said, placing my right hand on the handle of my saber. However, when I got a good look a what was coming at us, I can honestly say that I was at a loss for words. They weren't monsters, or Mechon. I mean, the kinda looked like Mechon, but…they weren't. They didn't seem to be carrying any weapons either.

"Wow," I said. "Just when I thought I'd seen everything this world could throw at me."

…

"Wakie wakie, Melly!" Riki said as he shook Melia awake.

"Mmmmmm…" Melia groaned, as she groggily awoke, first blinded by the sunlight, and then rested her eyes a large cuddly furball with a really happy expression on his face. "Oh, good morning, Riki," she said with a smile.

"Melly sleep well?" Riki asked.

"As well as I could have on a beach," she replied, as she stretched and cracked her backbones into place. Sand was softer that soil, but it didn't really make for good bedding.

"Melia, good to see you awake," Dunban said as he walked up to the two.

"Good morning Dunban," Melia said as she stood up and yawned. "Have you had any luck finding the others?"

"No, it doesn't look like they're here, which is unfortunate," Dunban replied grimly. "I hope everybody is safe."

Melia, Dunban, and Riki had been searching non-stop last night to find their missing comrades since they woke up after falling from Galahad Fortress. They were all worried about weather or not everyone else had survived the fall, but none were more worried than Melia. Andrew and Tyrea were constantly on her mind the entire night. She wanted to spend more time with the both of them, to keep building her bond with her sister, and to learn more about Andrew and the world that he came from. If Tyrea was dead…she would never forgive herself for it. As for Andrew, she wasn't worried about his physical health too much, since she was pretty sure that he survived the fall with the body that he has. But she was worried that he was driving himself mad looking for both her and Tyrea if he was with the others, or worse, by himself.

Andrew had given his all to protect both her and Tyrea since this journey started and shown a tremendous amount of kindness to her and her sister. So much, that she didn't even realize that much kindness and compassion could even exist in just one single person. And it was because his kindness and strong will that she couldn't get him out of her mind. His smile, his laugh, his eyes…those bright and clear emerald eyes…even the way he fights. The way he fiercely swung his blade, not to destroy but to protect, and the way his jacket and the cord of the device around his neck danced in the wind as he fought. Even when she and Tyrea had spoke about him at the supply convoy, she was still uncertain if what she felt for him was love, but after all of these thoughts about him kept invading her dreams last night, she knew immediately that she had fallen in love with the boy from another world.

Andrew had done everything for her since the day she met him…and she had nothing in return to give him. At least nothing that he would accept. She had come to know Andrew well enough to realize that he is the kind of person who does things out of the goodness of his heart and asks for nothing in return. That was one of the many things that made Melia fall in love with him in the first place. But even so, she still felt like she needed to do something to show her how thankful she was to him.

"Everyone safe," Riki said, bringing Melia out of her thoughts. "Everyone strong!"

"Riki's right," Melia said, reassuring both herself and Dunban. She knew that they were strong enough to protect themselves, especially Andrew and Tyrea. "It is simply a matter of when we will happen across them."

"I'm sure we all fell around the same area," Dunban thought aloud. "They have to be around here somewhere."

While Dunban was pondering, Riki waddled over to a large hollow pipe that was behind the two adventurers. "Friends look here!" the Nopon exclaimed. Dunban and Melia turned to see the large pipe that Riki was standing by. "Riki find it yesterday when Riki go scouting."

Dunban and Melia walked over to where Riki was standing, giving the pipe a quick glance. "I wonder where it leads," Dunban wondered.

"Go go!" Riki exclaimed, bouncing up and down. "Riki has feeling Shulk and friends are on other side!"

"Feeling?" Dunban asked. Normally Dunban would question Riki's intuition, since he normally had food on the brain, but after the heart to heart he had with him last night, he thought maybe it was time to give the Heropon the benefit of the doubt. "Well, I'm willing to give your Nopon instinct a try."

"As am I. The pipe it is," Melia agreed. If it would help her find her friends and her sister. _"Andrew, as soon as I see you again, I will repay my debt to you,"_ she thought to herself. _"I promise."_

…

On the other side of the pipe was a large wall that was constructed in a circle. Dunban deduced that a wall this big could only mean there was something of importance on the other side. And as luck would have it, there was a constructed opening nearby the pipe they came out of that lead to the inside of the wall. The three decided to investigate what was on the other side, hoping perhaps that some of the others had taken shelter on the other side. Little did they know that there was a very small and mechanically built village would be on the other side. And when they saw it, they were most surprised.

"A village in a place like this!" Dunban said with amazement in his voice, clearly not expecting such a sight.

"Melia!" A young boy's voice suddenly called.

"Sister!" A female voice followed.

"Well, look what the cat dragged in!" Another male's voice chimed in. The three right away whom these voices belonged to. They all turned to the source of the voices to find all of their comrades running towards them. Shulk, Andrew, Reyn and Sharla. They were all there.

Overcome with joy Melia instantly found herself running towards them, but she only shouted two names. "Andrew! Tyrea!" As soon as she was close enough to them, she threw herself at the two of them. Caught off guard, Andrew and Tyrea fell flat on their backs, bringing down Melia with them. "I'm so glad that you're okay!" She said through tears of joy.

"Same here, Mel," Andrew said as he gently patted Melia's back.

"Sister…" said Tyrea as she gently embraced her sister. "I'm so happy you're safe…"

"It's great to see everyone's unharmed," Dunban said as he walked towards everyone.

"Yeah," Shulk replied. "And we found Fiora."

As soon as the words were out of his mouth, everyone turned to see a girl in silver Mechon armor slowly walking toward them. They had seen this individual enough times to recognize this her as Fiora. Dunban, for the first time seeing her outside of the Nemesis frame, slowly walked over to her.

"Dunban…" Fiora said with a soft smile on her face.

Dunban had to fight really hard to hold back his tears at hearing his name. "Fiora! You remember me?"

Fiora then frowned a little bit after seeing how hard Dunban was fighting his expression. "Sorry if I made you worry," she said.

Dunban gave her a gentle hug in response. "It's alright," he said. "I'm just so glad that you're alive."

Fiora returned the gesture by gently hugging him back. "Dear brother…" she said.

"So that's your childhood friend?" Melia asked as she helped Andrew and Tyrea to their feet.

"Yeah," the wielder of the Monado replied.

"Good for you," she said with a smile. "I'm glad she's safe."

"Thanks," Shulk replied. "I couldn't have done it without you."

"How did all of you get here though?" Dunban asked as he broke away from her sister. "And what is this place anyway?"

"We had a little help," Andrew said, pointing behind Dunban and Fiora. Immediately, everyone turned to see a sight that immediately got their attention. Strange bipedal creatures that were cover head to toe in greyish, spiky armor and metallic skin, and various colored accents on their bodies. They looked similar to the Mechon, but also looked like Homs.

"Apparently these guys live here," Andrew added. "Not really sure who or what they are though. They said they would tell us everything after they found you guys. But I guess they don't need to worry about that anymore."

Dunban, Melia and Riki were dumfounded by the sight that they were seeing.

"Your surprise is understandable," a woman's voice spoke up. A female gender of the creatures walked up. She had the same greyish armor and metallic skin, but she had purple, blue and green accents on her armor. "We are the Machina," the woman said. "The people of Mechonis."

…

I still couldn't get over this amazing sight. Here was a species of people that were completely undiscovered by anyone on the Bionis. And we were the first to find them! The wonders of this world never ceased to amaze me.

"Machina…" Shulk said, as though he were drilling the word into his head.

"What you mean like…machine people?" I asked, trying to clarify that's what "Machina" meant.

"I assume you have many questions," the woman replied.

"You have no idea," Reyn said.

"First let me start by introducing myself. My name is Linada," The Machina woman said.

"So, are you Mechon?" Dunban asked.

"In one sense we are, and in another we are not," Linada responded. "It is a fact that the weapons you call the Mechon were created by our civilasation. However, we were born from the Mechonis. By your understanding, it would be correct to say that we are the same as Mechon."

"A from of mechanical life born of the Mechonis…" Melia thought out loud. "Is that correct?"

"From our perspective, you are forms of organic life born of the Bionis."

"Andy the not Hom-Hom not from Bionis," Riki spoke up.

I gave him a questioning look in response to that comment. "Umm…not really sure this is a good time to bring that up Rik." I said.

"I beg your pardon, but I'm afraid I don't understand," Linada said, giving mean a confused look. "What does the Nopon mean when he says you're not from Bionis?"

I sighed, knowing that cat was now out of the bag. "It's a long story, and if I were to explain it, I doubt you'd believe a word of it."

After hearing that, Linada gave me an interested smile. "Try me," she said.

"Ummm…well…"

"He's from another dimension," Melia answered for me.

I gave her a surprised look. "Wow, you said that rather nonchalantly," I said.

"After everything that I have seen within the past few days, I'm hardly surprised by anything anymore," Melia responded.

Linada however just gave us a questionable look. "Forgive me for being skeptical, but I find that rather hard to believe."

"Yeah, see? Called it," I said. "But it is the truth. I may look like a Homs but my body is entirely different from these guys."

"I can vouch for that," Sharla added. "The inside of Andrew's body is unlike anything I've ever seen before."

This seemed to catch Linada's interest. "Is that so?" She asked.

"I'm sure you have a lot of questions for Andrew," Shulk input. "But I believe we should get the more pressing questions of your kind out of the way first."

"Oh, my apologies," Linada replied.

"So, life born of the Mechonis…" Shulk continued. "So there is life here, just like on Bionis?"

"Explain to us why you invaded our world!" Dunban demanded. "What did we ever do to you?"

"I understand your feelings," Linada tried to calm Dunban down. "But please, there is much yet to tell you."

"Dunban, please hear her out," Fiora said, attempting to reason with her brother.

"But…" Dunban interjected.

"These Machina…they're good people—ah!" Fiora suddenly winced in pain as she clutched the triangle crest on her chest.

"You okay?" I asked, a little worried. This was the first time I'd seen Fiora in pain. Was there something wrong with her body?

At the sight of this, Linada walked over to Fiora. "You do not look fully functional," she said.

"Ever since she was given this body, she hasn't been feeling too good," Shulk explained. "But we honestly don't know what to do."

"Do you mean to tell me you are not Machina?" Linada asked, rather shocked. "Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

Fiora panted a little before she panted again. "I'm okay…really."

"Nonsense," Linada insisted. "I am a doctor. Do not worry. I specialise with people in your situation."

Wow. So the Machina have health problems of their own? I guess being mechanical doesn't automatically make you superior to organics. Linada then placed her hands on Fiora and her eyes started to glow green. I guess she was scanning her body.

"Hmmm," The Machina doctor thought out loud. "Just as I thought. You were transformed into a Face unit. You are experiencing a functional breakdown in multiple locations."

"Wait, you know about the Faces?" I asked.

"Of course I do, Andrew," Linada replied. The four of us had already introduced ourselves to the Machina when they found us. "I am a Machina doctor. It's my duty to know of things such as those." She then placed a hand on Fiora's shoulder. "I will take her to my laboratory so that she may be treated. In the meantime the chief will answer anymore questions you have. He is waiting for you in Junks."

"For us?" Reyn asked.

Linada nodded. "Follow me."

…

Linada lead us to a small building that was floating in the large pond in the center of the viliage.

"I'll be taking Fiora with me now," Linada said as we entered Junks. "We will speak later."

"Hope you feel better," I said to Fiora.

"Thanks, Andrew," she said to me with a smile.

"Mind if I tag along," Sharla volunteered. "I'm a Homs medic. Perhaps I could be of some use?"

"Oh, I would very much appreciate the extra help," Linada said with a smile. "Come, up this way." She then lead Sharla and Fiora up a small ramp to a very small balcony that served as Linada's lab. As for the rest of us, we proceeded through the door that lead to the front of the back of the Junks building.

Waiting there was some sort of control room with a bunch of orange colored holographic displays, and a friggin' fat and HUGE Machina guy! He was sitting in some kind of giant mobile throne. Actually the throne seemed to be a part of him. This guy's armor was decked out with silver and orange accents.

"Whoa!" was all I could say.

"He's massive," was all Reyn could say, apparently.

The big Machina guy let out an entertained and rather burley laugh. "I get a kick out of seeing people's faces every time! Heheheheheheh!"

I couldn't help but crack a smile at the way he talked. "Okay, I instantly like this guy," I said.

"We were told that you were waiting for us," Dunban said.

"That's right," the big guy answered. "The name's Miqol. I'm the chief of the Machina Village, and I have been waiting for a long time. Waiting for you to accept my request."

"What request?" Tyrea asked, a little confused at the sudden mention of such a thing.

"But first let me ask," Miqol then turned to Shulk. "The sword the young man is holding. Is that the Monado?"

"It is," Shulk answered.

Okay, that's strange. How did the Machina know about the Monado? Before I could even vocalize my question, I then noticed that Miqol turned his eyes to me.

"And you," he said. "You have a rather unusual body. You're not from Bionis or Mechonis are you?"

Now I was really taken aback by that. "Umm…y-yeah, but…how did you know?"

"I ran a scan on your body the moment you came in," the chief answered. "I haven't seen anyone else with a husk of a body as yours, or emitting that strange energy you're emitting. It wasn't difficult to put two and two together." He didn't press any further, which surprised me even more. Didn't he have more questions to ask me?

"And the destruction of the fortress on the sword," Miqol addressed us collectively. "Was that your lot's doing?"

"Uh, well, not directly," I spoke again. "But, yeah, we did have a part in that."

"Although unfortunately we were unable to stop Egil," Dunban added.

This seemed to catch Miqol's attention. "Egil?" he repeated.

"You know the guy?" I asked. "He's been calling himself the leader of Mechonis ever since we crossed paths."

"Hmmm," Miqol pondered. "That indeed sounds like him. This Egil that you fought is one our people."

"He's Machina?" Melia asked.

"Indeed," the Machina chief responded. "As a matter of fact, he's my son."

I'm pretty sure everyone's eyes widened with shock after hearing that. "Wait, what?" I asked, totally not expecting this.

"Your son is our enemy?" Tyrea added, just about as surprised as I can guess everyone else was.

"Actually, my request is about him," Miqol continued. "I want you to kill Egil."

The room went dead silent after that. I've said it once and I'll say it again: How far down does this rabbit hole go?

…

Back at Alcamoth, the Homs representatives from both Colony 9 and 6, along with the Nopon representatives gathered in Audience Chamber.

"Dearest Homs and Nopon representatives," Kallian began. "My humble gratitude for accepting our invitation. I am Kallian Antiqua, regent of the High Entia."

"We all know who you are," Otharon, the representative of Colony 6 said with apathy. "You High Entia have kept yourselves safe, remaining spectators to our destruction. Why call upon us now?"

"As stated in my invitation," Kallian continued. "It is our intention to form an allied force from the peoples of Bionis, with which we will confront the Mechonis."

"Hah," Otharon scoffed. "Look at you. One little scratch and you're already crying for help."

"I cannot deny this," Kallian admitted. "The attack did serve as the catalyst. But the fact remains that things have changed."

"When we needed help at the Battle of Sword Valley, our cries were ignored," Otharon stated. "Give me one good reason why we should bother."

Dickson, who was representing Colony 9, chuckled a bit at Otharon's response. He hadn't changed a bit.

"I understand your anger," Kallian attempted to empathize. "Our selfishness was inexcusable. However, please hear what I have to say. Listen to why our stance has changed."

"Hmph," Otharon grunted. "Start talking if you like. But no promises we'll stick around till the end."

"We High Entia were mistaken," Kallian spoke. "We believed that if we were attack by the Mechon, our power alone could repel them. But a brave group of your heroes showed us the error of our ways. When the Mechon descended upon Eryth Sea, Shulk and Andrew fought with a courage and determination I have never seen. I was most surprised to see that this group was comprised of different races. Homs, Nopon, High Entia, and even a being from an extra terrestrial plane of existence; although different, they trusted one another as friends."

"This Andrew fellow you just mentioned," Otharon, said with his interest piqued. "Is he the same Andrew that Dickson keeps talking about? This so called Homs that isn't a Homs and can't die?"

"The very same," Kallian answered. "I know the mere thought of it sounds ridiculous, but my sister saw what he is capable of with her own eyes and told me every single detail. And I have never known her to lie."

"I'll believe it when I see it," Otharon said, still skeptical. "But first, on with what you wish to say."

"Ah, yes forgive me," Kallian resumed. "As I was saying, as just one inhabitant of Bionis, I desired to…no, rather, I _felt_ compelled to become strong like them."

"Their strength came from the Monado," Otharon stated. "At least for most of them it sounds. Bravery only gets you so far in this world. But from what Dickson told me about Andrew, skepticism aside, it sounds like he gets his strength from something other than the Monado."

"Indeed it does," Kallian agreed. "However, what the source is from, I'm not sure. I doubt that even he knows. But I digress, does your earlier statement mean you will not join us?"

Otharon held up his hands. "Hold your horses, son," he said. "I said they didn't win with bravery alone. But they wouldn't have gotten far without it. So in light of that, you can count on our help."

"The Nopon will join too!" Chief Dunga, the leader of the Nopon spoke up. Unlike the majority of the Nopon, his spoke in first person, supposedly to invoke a figure of authority. "The Hom Hom and Bird People are friends of the Nopon. We will fight together!"

Dickson smiled; pleased with the way this was turning out. He turned to leave, but not before Kallian spoke to him. "Dickson," he said. "Are you leaving?"

"Yeah," the old man replied. "It's just I felt this sudden pain in the neck."

"Is that your response?" Kallian wasn't sure if Dickson was joking or being serious.

"Don't go jumpin' the gun there, Prince," Dickson reassured. "I'll leave Colony 9's forces with old Otharon here." This earned him a bit of a glare from said person. "You can use 'em however you want. I've got somewhere I need to be."

"Might I ask where?" the prince inquired.

"A battle's more than just a head-on assault," Dickson responed. "The sooner you realise that, the better. I'd better go and remind Shulk n' all."

"So you know of their whereabouts?" Kallian pressed, eager to learn of the safety of his sisters and their friends.

"I told you," Dickson said with a confident grin on his face. "I've got a pretty good idea." After that he turned to leave.

"Dickson!" Kallian called one last time. "Hold on!"

"Yeah?" The Colony 9 representative turned, curious to know what Kallian wanted.

"If you happen to see Shulk…" the prince stated.

"What?" Dickson asked, letting Kallian know he was listening.

"I have something I want you to tell him. Andrew as well."

…

"W-wait a second, you want us to _kill_ your _son?_ " I finally said, breaking the silence.

"That is no small request," Dunban added, I guess agreeing to my shock in some way.

"There are hardly any of us Machina left on Mechonis," Miqol explained. "Back when the Bionis and the Mechonis were fighting, the Bionis almost completely wiped us out. I suppose the Bionis just didn't want us around. Lady Meyneth fought the Bionis for us, and in the end, the two titans wounded each other, and entered a deep slumber."

Meyneth. That was like the second or third time I've heard that name. Who is she, and why does she bear such significance to all of this?

"Who was Lady Meyneth?" Melia asked, apparently the same thoughts as me.

"The creator of Mechonis," Miqol answered. "You could say that she is the Mechonis itself."

Immediately after he said that, Zanza came to mind. The way that the Giant spoke, it sounded like he was the Bionis itself. But from what I've seen thus far, the Machina seemed like pretty good people, save Egil. But why would the Bionis and Mechonis be fighting each other all those years ago? Something didn't add up.

"You talk like you all saw this," Reyn input. "Ain't this all just an ancient myth?"

"I know I look young," Miqol answered. "But I'm actually quite old. I saw the whole thing with my own eyes."

Yeah, Miqol looked to be…I dunno, seventy at least. And this battle was supposed to have taken place centuries ago.

"You can't be serious?!" Reyn exclaimed in disbelief.

"Maybe the Machina have longer lifespans than Homs," I deduced.

"Of course," Tyrea agreed. "Just like we High Entia live far longer than Homs."

"I get that, but he can't have lived that long," said Reyn.

"I have a body that literally can't age, and that is what you question?" I deadpanned with a smirk on my face.

Reyn gave this some thought. "Good point," he said.

"But why do you want your son dead?" Shulk asked. "From what you've told us, I would've thought you'd want us to destroy the Bionis rather than kill your own son."

"Egil was a brilliant young man," Miqol answered. "Clever, strong and kind to the less able. But he never forgave the Bionis for what it did, and he swore to take revenge."

"So he wants to do to us what the Bionis did to the Machina?" Reyn asked.

"Correct," the Machina chief answered. "Egil is trying to eradicate all innocent life on Bionis. He has to be stopped."

"Didn't you ever try to stop him?" Dunban inquired.

"We tried once," Miqol answered. "A lot of people were killed."

I kind of grimaced at that. "Wow…" was all I could say.

"He's blinded by revenge," Miqol continued. "Even Lady Meyneth herself couldn't convince him to stop."

"Where is Egil now?" Shulk asked.

"Most likely the Mechonis capital," Miqol responed. "He's trying to restore its former glory all by himself."

Shulk looked down with what appeared to be pity on his face. "I feel sorry for him," he said.

"What're you talkin' about?!" Reyn exclaimed. "Did you forget what he did to us?!"

"I haven't forgotten, or forgiven!" Shulk responded. "But Egil's clearly suffered a lot in his life. You don't feel any sympathy at all?"

"Yeah, I gotta agree with Shulk on this," I said. "Yeah, Egil's being, well, kind of a dick about wanting to annihilate all life on Bionis, but…I think there's a bigger picture about this century long struggle from what Miqol just said. There's too many things about this we don't know yet."

"All I know is, this stinks," Reyn answered. "Who cares what he's been through?"

"Reyn!" Shulk exclaimed.

"I understand about Egil," Dunban said, I guess attempting to change the subject. "But why us? You should be aware that Shulk's sword, the Monado, has the power to destroy Mechonis weaponry. It's said that it was once the sword of the Bionis. And Andrew has the power to utterly annihilate and crush any Mechon without the power of the Monado. Doesn't the very sight of it make you quiver?"

"Zanza…" I heard Miqol muttered under his breath. I rose by eyebrow at this.

"What about him?" I asked.

"Oh, just talking to myself," Miqol said, waving off my question like it was unimportant.

" _Okay, this guy knows something about Zanza, clearly,"_ I thought. " _But why did he avoid the subject?"_

"If you're gonna kill Egil," Miqol continued. "You'll need all of that sword's power. And if what you say about this young man here is true, the extra help would be a great advantage. That is how strong Egil is. But enough talk, you must be tired. Take your time and think it over. Until the young lady's treatment has finished, feel free to spend time in our village."

"Welp," I said. "Now that we got that out of the say, I'm gonna go clean myself up."

"You're leaving?" Dunban asked.

"Only for like ten or fifteen minutes," I said. "I haven't had a shower since we left Alcomoth, so I kinda stink."

…

As Andrew walked out of Junks, Tyrea grew a sly smile on her face. She then grabbed her sister's wrist and pulled her along. "Come on," she said.

"W-wait, where are we going?" Melia asked, quite surprised.

"We're following our love interest," Tyrea replied. "And I'm going to tell you about something wonderful."


	14. Chapter 12-Conviction

AN: WARNING! THIS CHAPTER CONTAINS A LEMON! No further explanation needed. NEEEEXT!

Chapter Twelve-Conviction

 _When your fear of death has been eliminated…_

 _You will fear the death of others._

"Aaaaaahhhhhh…" It felt nice to relax for a bit, especially after the non-stop Mechon and Monster trashing I've been through. I found a small beach that lay behind the outer wall of the Hidden Machina Village. I had to crush a few minor obstacles that made rather half-assed attempts to maim me, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. Hell I didn't even need to use my saber on my way here, not just because it would be a waste of effort, but also because I didn't want to get monster blood on it.

Speaking of which, since my weapon of choice would kinda weigh me down in the water, I had left it on the beach with the point of the blade stabbed into the ground, and my clothes draped over the handle of the blade. So now I was bathing, naked in salt water. And it felt great. Ever since I was a kid I had always loved to swim in the water. I loved how it felt on my body, how quiet it was underwater, the floating sensation that would wrap around me, like some kind of blanket. And now that I didn't have any lungs, I could stay under water for as long as I wanted to. I surrendered myself to the sound of the water, and slowly closed my eyes. I didn't realize how vulnerable I was to a certain girl.

…

"You WHAT?!" Melia shouted as they followed the general direction in which Andrew had gone. Along the way, Tyrea was explaining all of the things that happened between her and Andrew when they were alone. Although in Melia's opinion, Tyrea was being a bit TOO descriptive. "Y-y-y-you…actuataully put his-his-his-his... _thing_ inside your mouth?!"

"It's not as grotesque as it sounds," Tyrea replied. "Andrew actually quite enjoyed it. And so did I."

"B-but…something like that is…so…so…dirty!" Melia protested, her face beet red.

"But that's what couples do when they're intimate," her sister explained. "They love each other so much they want to feel close to each other both physically and emotionally. They want to explore each other's bodies and share the same feelings of ecstasy. That's part of what being in love feels like."

Melia took a second to think about this. It's true that when she came to intimacy with the opposite sex, she knew extremely little. Tyrea had way more knowledge when it came to this. But Melia never thought that intimacy could be that…extreme. Still…Melia couldn't help but wonder, _"Did it really feel good…for Andrew? Does he…like that kind of affection…?"_

"I…I don't know…" Melia said rather meekly. "I…don't believe I have…as gorgeous of a body as you do."

Tyrea gave her sister a confused look. "Why do you say that?" she asked.

"Well…just…look at you," Melia replied. "You're the same height as Andrew is, your bust size is much larger than mine, you have an incredibly athletic body, and I'm…I'm just…small…"

"Well, some boys like shorter girls," Tyrea said. "I don't really think Andrew is too particular about the body. I think he looks more for the personality, and that is actually the sign of an extremely good man. Besides, larger breasts tend to create back problems."

"You…really think so? About me, I mean," Melia asked still not convinced.

"Of course! Sister, you're a princess! And Andrew, judging by the garments that he wears, is a commoner. How many people like him can say that he befriended royalty? I saw the way he was mooning at you back at the convoy. I think he really likes that new outfit of yours, as well as your petite figure."

Melia blushed at the praise she was getting from her sister. She certainly had never thought of herself like that in terms of physical appearance. "But…how do I…show affection to him in… _that_ way…I…I'm not experienced in that…"

Tyrea smiled and said, "Don't worry sister. I will tell you everything you need to know."

…

The Antiqua sisters came up to a small beach behind the outside wall of the Hidden Machina Village. Finding it was actually pretty easy. They just followed a trail of dead various monster bodies and mangled various Mechon scrap. And when they got there, they saw Andrew's beloved saber…with all of his clothes draped over it.

Both of the girls blushed when they saw this.

"Is…is Andrew…u-ummmm…"

"In the water, and nude?" Tyrea answered. "I would think so. No other way to explain why his clothes are strung over his weapon like that."

As if on cue, a small section of the body of water exploded upward. From the drops of water emerged a male with brow hair that was matted down by the water and a rather strong looking back. Both of the girls immediately knew that his was Andrew. Melia started to blush a bright crimson at the sight of this. She had only seen Andrew's well-toned body from the waist and up. Well actually she did see him naked once when he fell into Alcomoth, but it happened so fast, and she barely knew Andrew then. But that was a while ago and now she was looking at her crush completely in the nude for the second time. Tyrea was blushing as well but nowhere near as furiously as Melia. She had seen what Andrew had in his special area, and wasn't too suprised that the drapes matched the carpet.

"Now is your chance, sister," Tyrea encouraged her sister. "Go get him."

"Tyrea…I…I don't know…"

"You'll be fine," Tyrea reassured her sister. "Just stay calm and be yourself."

That didn't really put Melia at ease, unfortunately. However, her curiosity outweighed her overwhelming shyness. So despite the fact that her body was shaking with sheer nervousness, she slowly steep forward and out of the clearing where they were hiding. Melia continued a few steps forward and then stopped. This was her chance to get Andrew's attention, but she was struggling a lot to get words to come out of her mouth. So naturally, she just stuttered a lot, said some incoherent gibberish, and messed up her sentences. But it was loud enough for Andrew to hear.

With a rather confused look, Andrew turned around to see the source of the sound…only to yelp when he saw who it was, fail miserably at covering his private parts, stumble backwards, and then fall into the water like a complete idiot.

Melia immediately burst out in laughter after seeing this. She was expecting a reaction like this from Andrew, considering how modest he is (when he's not in the middle of combat that is), but she definitely was not expecting something this comical. Tyrea was also trying to stifle back a snicker, lest Andrew discovers her.

Andrew then got back up on his feet and spewed out some water that he had accidentally swallowed. Good thing he didn't have lungs anymore, otherwise he might have choked.

"What the hell, Melia?!" Andrew yelled. "Did you not see my clothes behind you?!"

Melia was finding it very hard to answer, due her laughing fit still in progress.

Andrew sighed. "And there you go laughing at my expense again."

"Well, you make it too easy," Melia replied in between chuckles.

Andrew was about to protest, but then he remembered the state he was in currently. And upon that realization, he noticed that Melia had stopped laughing and was staring at…his genitals…which unfortunately was erect.

"U-ummm…" Melia struggled to find words. "You…you have…a really nice body…"

Andrew's face turned a deep crimson immediately after he heard this. "U-um…I…uh…"

"I…really like it…" Melia said. "And…I like you too…" Melia then started to take off the chest piece of her clothes, exposing her breasts.

"M-Mel…wh…what are you…"

"I'm…bathing with you…" Melia replied rather shyly as she completely stripped down, bare-naked, and leaving her outfit on the sand right next to Andrew's saber and clothes.

"Um…I…uh…" Andrew was really struggling to form a sentence. And struggling to keep his boner under control. But that was easier said than done. Just one look at her and he couldn't look away. Melia had a very slender and petite figure, something Andrew had always liked secretly. Not only that but her skin was very pale and smooth. Just looking at her made Andrew want to run his fingers all over her body.

" _GAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!"_ Andrew screamed mentally in his mind at himself for having such thoughts. It was one thing with Tyrea, because she came on to him. But…wait, was Melia doing the same? It kind of looked like it, because she was slowly walking toward him.

"Tyrea…told me…about what happened between you two…"

" _Oooooooooohhhhhhhhhh shiiiiiiiiiiit!"_ Andrew thought. "U-um…look, Mel…I…Tyrea…she…I didn't…it wasn't…" Things were happening way to fast for Andrew to process. But much to Andrew's surprise, Melia did the last thing that he was expecting. She stood up on her toes, placed her hands on his cheeks and gently kissed him right on the lips. Her face turned a deep scarlet as she did this, while Andrew's face did the same, in addition to his eyes widening from the shock. This was an extremely familiar feeling to Andrew, but as he inhaled the sweet mint scent of her breath, he slowly began to relax, shut his eyes, and surrendered himself to Melia's gentle embrace.

Andrew then responded by wrapping his arms around her rather wide waist, and pressed himself into her, his manhood rubbing up against her navel. Melia experienced a tingling sensation in between her legs, something she had never felt before. Her body started to heat up as she wrapped her arms around Andrew's neck, and pressed into his well toned body, her small breasts squishing into his chest. They were not as big as Tyrea's but they had a nice shape and were just as firm.

Melia recalled some of the things that her sister taught her on their walk. She nervously slid her tongue along Andrew's. Immediately realizing what she was trying to do, Andrew wrapped his tongue around hers, and guided it, as though they were dancing. This continued for about five minutes, which seemed like half an hour to the two of them, until Melia had to break away for some oxygen. She panted, in both pleasure and shock. "Andrew…how…how long can you…"

"No lungs," Andrew replied with a smile.

Melia let out a chuckle. "Of course," she said, reminded of the uniqueness of his body. Speaking of which, she still could not take her eyes off of him. And before she even realized it she started eyeing his manhood, which kept twitching as though it had a mind of its own. Remembering more of what Tyrea had told her, she moved to Andrew's left side, nestled his right arm in between her breasts, and gently placed her right hand around Andrew's cock, whom let out a small grunt.

"Does…that hurt..?" Melia asked with concern.

"No…not at all," Andrew replied. "It's just…kinda sensitive…especially to a girl's touch…aaaaahhh…"

Melia smiled shyly. _"So Tyrea was right,"_ Melia thought. _"Then…I wonder…"_ She then began to gently stroke Andrew's member. It was pretty large compared to her hand, and extremely warm. It felt…nice…the texture was hard, but at the same time, it was soft. This earned her a rather pleasured sigh from him. "Does…that feel good..?" she asked nervously.

"Ahhhhhh…yeah…" he replied, his voice in an ecstatic whisper.

As Melia kept stroking Andrew, she looked up at his face. His eyes were closed, as though he was experiencing a wonderful dream, and he was letting out short, gentle pants. _"He looks so relaxed,"_ Melia thought to herself. _"He really is enjoying this."_ Melia then began to stroke him a little faster. _"I don't know why…but I want to see more of Andrew's face when he's like this…I want to make him feel even more pleasure…"_

"Aaaaaaaahhhh…Mmmmeeeeeellllll…" Andrew moaned.

" _His manhood is getting harder. Does that mean…the 'something wonderful' is going to come out?"_ Tyrea had explained that when a man reaches the peak of pleasure, he releases his "seed." Melia only had a vague idea of what she meant by that, but now was the time to see what would happen. Melia increased her stroking speed, and then…

"Ahhhhhh…Agh!" Andrew made a rather animal-ish growl as he reached his limit and ejaculated long strands of semen several feet away from them.

Melia let out a surprised gasp as Andrew's cock burst forward. She eyed the strange white liquid as it continued to spurt out, as though it were some kind of fountain. This went on for about thirty seconds until Andrew finally calmed down…just a bit though. His member was still hung like a horse, and there was quite a bit of left overs leaking out.

"Does…that mean you liked it..?" Melia asked, still shocked at what just happened.

"Ahhhhh…y-yeah…your hand felt really…wonderful…"

" _He liked it!"_ Melia squealed in her mind.

"Melia…wh…what…why did…?"

Melia then silenced him with another kiss on the lips, to which Andrew immediately returned. They broke away after a bit, so that Melia could answer her crush. "Andrew…ever since we met…I always thought you were a curious individual…the way throw yourself into a battle to protect those who you don't even know…your kindness…your strong will…I never imagined that I would ever meet a person like you…you have done so much…for me…for my sister…for everyone…in a world that you barely know…I never imagined so much kindheartedness could ever come from just one person…Andrew…" She raised herself as high as she could on her toes and whispered in his ear. "I love you…"

If Andrew still had a physical heart, it would have stopped beating for about five seconds. First Tyrea, and now…things were happening pretty fast, not that Andrew minded it too much. Still…

"But…Tyrea already…"

"I know…" Melia interrupted. "I figured that Tyrea would make the first move, seeing how she's more well versed in this than I am…but…even so…I…I still wanted to tell you my feelings…"

Andrew was extremely flabbergasted by this. He had never had two girls confess to him in less than twenty-four hours. "Melia…I…I…I'm really having trouble…trying to sift through my thoughts…I mean…I…I love you too…a lot…but…Tyrea…she…"

Melia once again hushed Andrew, this time with a finger on his lips. "I had already agreed with my sister to share you with her."

…

"Come again..?"

Melia giggled at Andrew's subtle but surprised reaction. "You have two lovers from another world…you handsome, dense, gentle and wonderful person." Melia then happily wrapped her arms around Andrew's neck and kissed him passionately. Andrew of course returned the gesture. _"Aaaaaaaahhhhhh…his breath…it's so warm…it's…heating me up…aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh! My mind…my body…it's…what's happening to me..? Is this…what sister called…being in heat..?"_

The two pulled away, with Melia panting a bit and having a look of pure bliss on her face. "Aaaaaaaahhh…Andrew…" she moaned.

"Yeah..?" Andrew asked a little shyly, as this was the second time he saw someone of the opposite sex pleasured by him…needless to say, he wasn't used to it.

Melia smiled blissfully and said, "You're too much…" She then slowly lowered herself down to his waist until his manhood was right in front of her face. _"It looks…so much bigger from this angle…"_ she thought to herself as the strong sent of Andrew waft into her nose. _"Ugh…it smells…"_ Melia slightly scrunched her face up as she first caught her crush's scent…but then she sniffed it more. _"It smells…like fish…and yet…I do not find it nauseating…actually…"_ Melia the puckered up her lips and then gently placed them on the head of Andrew's genitals. _"I…really like this scent…I want more of it…"_ She released her lips on Andrew with a kiss. This caused Andrew to groan a bit, and his member to perk up more, making a little more left over semen slowly flow out.

Melia couldn't help but giggle at his reaction. _"Tyrea was right…he really is fun to tease…his reactions are…so adorable…"_ Inching her mouth to his cock again, she stuck out her tongue, and albeit nervously, slowly started to lick the bottom of his shaft. _"More…I want to see more of his reactions…I want to hear him moan…I want to see his face in bliss…I want to explore every nook and cranny of his body…because this is the body of the man I love…"_ Melia continued to lick Andrew's penis up and down, slowly and gently. Andrew groaned softly, as his mind started to flicker in and out of consciousness. Melia's technique wasn't anywhere near as good as Tyrea's, but just the feel of her tongue, the feel of the girl that he had developed feelings for, along with her sister, was more than enough to arouse him.

After Melia had licked Andrew for a bit, she decided it was time to take the plunge. _"I wonder…what it will taste like…"_ She puckered her lips once more, but instead of a kiss to his cock this time, she slowly glided her lips further down, allowing his rod to sink deeper and deeper into the cavern of her mouth. _"It's…it's so big…!"_ Melia had to widen her jaw a bit in order for her to fit it all the way inside, bringing her face all the way to Andrew's pelvis. Immediately there was a problem: Melia couldn't breathe…for about three seconds. It took her that long to realize that she had to breathe through her nose to avoid gaging. This caused her to inhale more of Andrew's already strong smell. _"Oooooooohhhhhhhh…this scent…is getting inside my head…and his manhood…it's so warm…"_

Melia, following her sister's advice, she slid her tongue out and under Andrew's shaft, cradling it, and stretched her lips outward, gently squeezing his manhood, all the while creating a slightly vulgar face. She turned to eyes up to Andrew to see how he was fairing, and saw his head rearing backwards and letting out quite an audible groan. Andrew then turned his eyes down to Melia, and what he saw made him even more aroused. Andrew had a secret fetish for faces that Melia was making during oral sex, as he read a lot of hentai manga when he was bored out of his mind. How did she know about this? Did Tyrea tell her, or was she somehow reading his mind?

Of course Melia couldn't read minds, but she could read Andrew's face clear as a book. And the look she saw made her squeal inside her mind with happiness. _"He likes this! He really likes this! Tyrea was right!"_ Overcome with joy, Melia then began to gently sucking on his manhood, slowly moving her head back and fourth along his length, letting her lips glide along him, stretching her lips out even more, and making rather vulgar sucking sounds with her mouth.

Once again Andrew reeled his head backwards at the pleasure that surged through his body so suddenly, letting out a few groans for good measure. Melia kept sucking Andrew's cock at a rhythmic pace, smiling with both her lips and her eyes as she saw how blissful and peaceful his face looked. Wanting to bring Andrew more pleasure, she increased her pace. This caused Andrew's dick to start throbbing quite vigorously. _"Oooooooooooohhhhh…he's about to release!"_ Melia increased her pace even more. _"Cum, Andrew…cum in my mouth…I want you to feel good…release as much as you want to…!"_

"Aaaggghh!" Andrew groaned as he grabbed Melia's head and shoved her down to his pelvis.

"Mmmff!" Melia let out a muffled squeal at this sudden action. And then…

"Rrrrggghhh!" Andrew growled like some kind of beast as he began to release deep inside Melia's throat.

" _Aaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh…"_ Melia moaned, both inside her mind and audibly, as Andrew's seed continued to pour down her throat. _"He's releasing so much…it tastes so bitter…but it's sweet too…like a sour and juicy watermelon…and it's so warm…and thick…it's sticking to my throat…so this is what makes children…"_ It was then that she realized her cheeks were starting to swell up. _"My goodness…how much more can he have…?"_ Her eyes started to roll back, as the warmth of Andrew's seed in her mouth started to overtake her mind and body.

Andrew kept releasing about ten more times until Melia's cheeks were completely puffed out. As he finished, Melia let the sensation in the mouth set for a few seconds, as she breathed softly through her nose, both recovering from the rather pleasurable shock of Andrew's release, and to savor more of his manhood's scent, as she had now become rather addicted to it. She then slowly began to glide her lips off of Andrew's manhood, sucking the leftover semen out of his urethra as she did. This nearly caused Andrew to cum again. Melia then finally released Andrew with a kiss, and then slowly swallowed all of his seed down her throat. As she did, Andrew could not take his eyes off of her, like she was an angel sent down from heaven. Why couldn't he have met someone like her as his first encounter with an angel instead of friggin' Gabriel?

After Melia had taken her final gulp she let out a soft and gentle "Puaaaaaaaaahhhhhh…" and then gave a gentle and happy smile to Andrew. "How did that feel…?"

"Ahhhhhhh…really…really…amazing…" Andrew said in between breaths.

Melia's smile grew as he said that. "I'm glad…"

"Aaaaahh…Mel…where did you learn…?"

"Tyrea gave me…some advice…" she responded with a huge blush on her face.

Andrew chuckled a bit at this. "Of course she did."

" _Well done sister,"_ Tyrea thought to herself. _"I'll make a woman out of you yet!"_

…

Nothing much else important happened that day. I tinkered around with some of the smashed Mechon Parts I had collected in order to create something that might help us on our journey, and Shulk and some of the guys had gone out to get something for Fiora's life support malfunction that Linada needed to fix her. According to both the Machina medic and Sharla, Fiora was going to be just fine as soon as she got what she needed. That was great to hear, we were gonna need all the help we can get if we were gonna beat Egil. Even with my powers, that was gonna be tough. I may be able survive just about anything, but that's just me. Nobody else can. And when I was falling with Tyrea and when I couldn't find Melia, I was scared. Big time.

I was afraid that I had lost…a rather close friend of mine…and that I had failed Sorean's final request. But I didn't want to show that around Tyrea or the others. I didn't want them to worry about me or bring them down. And what Tyrea did for me when we were alone…I know she was doing it because she loved me, but I also think she was doing it because she guessed what was going on inside my mind, mentally freaking out over having almost lost her and the possibility of loosing Melia. I must have been pretty easy for her to read. And then when I found Melia…no words could describe how happy I was that she was alive. But I didn't want to break down in tears in front of everybody. Heh, so much for the whole stereotypical bullshit that I brought up about my own gender, right?

But…the main reason that I kept my fear under control is that…I already had a meltdown in front of them…and I didn't want to do that again. I didn't want people to worry about me…I just wanted to worry about myself…so I wasn't hiding some of my emotions out of pride…just out of selfishness…and for me, that's not easy to do. If you couldn't tell already, I am a very emotional person. And I've always have had a bad habit if keeping the negative emotions to myself. But…Melia and Tyrea…they somehow always know whenever something's bothering me…and I haven't even known them for that long…kinda makes me wonder how perceptive am I to the opposite sex.

And then…what Melia did for me earlier…Goddamn, I am the luckiest guy alive right now…two have two girls fall in love with me and agree to share me, and to not have to worry about hurting the other's feelings…just…wow…I have never had so much affection in my life before…and I had never felt so happy!

But…that being said…what's going to happen when I have to leave? Or…do I even want to leave? It was currently night time, and I was lying in on the bed in one of the shelter cylinders that the Machina had lent us to sleep in. Only I couldn't sleep, not that my body needed any, but because my thoughts were once again keeping me awake. There was so much I wasn't sure of. Most of it was about Melia and Tyrea. I was one hundred percent positive that I loved them, no question and if I could I'd want to spend the rest of my life with them. But that would mean giving up my goal to save my world and staying in this dimension…something I wasn't sure I wanted to do. But…what if it was too late for my world? What if it's been destroyed since I've been gone? What if…what I was fighting for was futile? What if I was just trying to run from what I was too scared to come to terms with? And on top of that, I don't even know the full extent of my powers or even it's origin…this Meyneth character seemed to have the most knowledge about what had happened to me, but who knew when I'd be able to speak to her again. There was just too much that I was unsure about.

"Andrew…?" I heard a soft-spoken female voice. I immediately recognized it as Melia. I looked over to the cylinder entrance and saw both Melia and Tyrea standing there.

"Hey," I said with a soft smile. "Can't sleep?"

"She was fidgeting non-stop, and I can probably guess why," Tyrea answered with a sly smile. Immediately Melia started to blush at the sound of this, and so did I. "So, she was wondering if the three of us could…cuddle for the night?" Tyrea turned a light shade of pink as she said this, and I'm pretty sure my own shade of red on my face turned to a pretty shade of scarlet. Needless to say, I have never EVER slept in the same bed with a girl. Or two for that matter. That just screams "loser" doesn't it?

"U-uh…yeah, sure…" I replied nervously. "Actually…I could use the company as a distraction…"

"Distraction from what?" Melia asked as she and Tyrea began to strip down to their undergarments.

…

Wait, WHAT?!

"U-ummmm…" I know I should have probably been expecting this…but when you consider the absolutely impossible circumstances that I have been thrown into…it should also be expected that I am still getting used to all this crazy crap.

"Something wrong?" Tyrea asked me.

"Ummm…why are you…?"

Tyrea must have automatically known what I was going to say because she smiled at me softly and said, "Well, it's going to be awfully warm with the three of us in the same bed…so…"

Huh…that actually made a lot of sense. "Oh…well…okay…well, when in Rome," I said as I began to take my shirt off, leaving only my pants on. This left a rather disappointed look on Tyrea's face.

"Why leave your leggings on?" she asked.

Turning an even deeper shade of crimson, I answered, "Uh…well…I'm not really sure…I'm at that point yet…I mean don't get me wrong I love both of you to death and would REALLY like to, but…well, considering what we have coming up in the near future, I really don't think it would be a good idea to worry myself about the possibility of you two getting pregnant."

Melia's wings flared and her face turned as crimson as mine as I spoke that last word, immediately realizing what Tyrea was getting at. "Um…sister…I have to agree with him…I mean…what I did was embarrassing enough…although I really did enjoy it…a lot…I…don't think I'm quite ready for it yet…"

Tyrea made a slight pouty face, but then gave a smile of understanding. "Very well sister, if you wish to wait, then I will too."

The both of them started to approach me as I lied down on the bed. Tyrea climbed over me first and lied on my left side and Melia took my right. The both of them laid their heads on my chest as I pulled the covers over the three of us. Immediately I began to feel my mind drift as I felt their skin pressing against mind. They were so soft and smooth. It felt great.

"Andrew…?" Melia asked me softly. "When you said you needed a distraction…was there something bothering you…?"

I took a deep breath before I answered. "I'm going to be honest with both of you…I'm scared…in more ways than one…"

This got their attention. They both turned to me with worried expressions on their faces.

"After the explosion at Galahad…when I was falling with Tyrea…I was scared that she was going to die…and that you already had…I was freaking out that I had lost both of you…and it was in that moment that I realized…that I'm not nearly as indestructible as I think I am…"

"Why do you say that…?" Tyrea asked me.

"I love you…I love you both…so, SO much…and the thought of loosing either of you…or even BOTH of you…it scares me to death…I can survive anything it seems…but you can't…and…I'm just one guy…I…I don't fear death now…but I fear everyone else's…after Sorean passed, I made it my obligation to protect you Melia, and by extension, you too Tyrea. The same can be said for Shulk and the others…but…what if I screw up…just like I did with Sorean…"

"Andrew…" Melia said softly. "What happened with father wasn't your fault…"

"But I feel like it is…" I countered. "Just like…I'm partially responsible for the destruction of my world…"

Tyrea me gave a look that said she immediately understood where I was going with this. Melia on the other hand gave a slightly shocked look. "What…?"

"Sister…" Tyrea said. "Remember when I told you that he has lost so much…?"

"Yes…?" Melia replied.

"Well…"

"I'll explain it…" I said.

It was Tyrea's turn to look worried now. "Andrew…are you sure…?"

"Hey, I already told you. What's the harm in telling someone else? Especially if it's some one I love."

Melia's wings fluttered at those words, while her face turned a bright pink as she gave me a warm smile.

I took a deep breath and then began to tell my tale once again. I told Melia about my friends and family, a brief summary of my life, the tragic accident that felled my parents, my desperation to bend life and time itself to my will, how it backfired miserably, and…how my creation was tearing my world to shreds…the fact it was all predestined to happen…and that I was born for the sole purpose of bringing the apocalypse…that my entire life was a Goddamn lie…literally.

Melia's warm smile then shifted to a look of worry and horror, as tears began to well up in her eyes. "Oh…Andrew…" she said with sorrow in her voice as she placed her left hand on the right side of her face. "You poor, poor thing…"

"I've been having recurring nightmares about it too…" I went on. "Those…bastards keep taunting me…saying that my efforts in trying to get back home and save it are futile…and…when we fought Egil and fell…I started thinking…maybe…I should just let sleeping dogs lie…"

Both of the girls looked at me with a surprised expression. "What…?" Tyrea aksed.

"Let's face it…my world may as well already be dead. Even if there is a way back, there's probably nothing left for me to save. The time I've spent here in this world may not reflect the time that has passed back home. So I have no idea how long I've been gone. It's time to face the facts…my fight's worth-"

I was about to say "worthless," but then Melia silenced me with a deep kiss. One which I returned immediately. When we parted she gave me a rather serious look. "Don't ever say that. You have never struck me as the type of person who would just give up so easily when presented with a seemingly impossible situation."

"Indeed," Tyrea agreed. "Andrew, even if you believe that your world is doomed, you will never truly know if you are able to save it if you don't try. Not doing so will haunt you even more so than your nightmares. And if it's too late for you to save it…then you can still avenge it."

Melia nodded. "I cannot and will not ever forgive those who have wronged both you and your family. Andrew, you must keep pressing forward. Didn't you say you wanted to find answers about yourself and what happened to you? What if those answers hold the key to getting you back home?"

"But…what if I don't like what I hear…?"

"Then you keep pressing forward in spite of it," Tyrea continued. "Keep fighting until you find your own answer."

"And we'll help you every step of the way," Melia added.

I was shocked by what Melia had just said. "Wait…you…you want to…help me save my world…?"

"Why wouldn't we?" Tyrea asked as she nuzzled into my neck. "It's only natural to want to help the man that we love."

Melia followed her lead and nuzzled into the other side of my neck too. It felt really nice to have two beautiful ladies from another world show me a lot of affection. I guess that was their way to make me stop arguing with them because…well…it worked. A soft moan escaped my lips as I was starting to feel really sleepy in their embrace.

"Just rest for now, Andrew…and forget all about your worries in this moment," Tyrea said.

"You have helped us so much…so let us help you…" Melia added.

They both kissed me on the cheeks. And just like that, I was out like a light.

AN: Okay, update. I am in the last five weeks of my senior year at College so I gotta shift my priorities. I won't be making any updates to this for some time, but I'm not gonna stop completely. I'll work on this as I get the chances. Anyways, hope you enjoyed the chapter as well as my second lemon. STAY TUNED!


	15. Chapter 13 - What Must Be Done

AN: Uuuuuugggggghhhhh…finals are done, but I've got a summer semester coming up along with an internship in D.C. So yeah, even after my final year at college is done, my summer is still going to be busy. No rest for the weary I guess. But I'm not gonna let that stop me! NEEEEXT!

Chapter Thirteen-What Must Be Done

 _I have a duty._

 _I must complete it._

The first thing I heard was the soft sound of birds chirping outside of the metal cylinder that served as my temporary sleeping quarters. And the second thing I heard was a soft and gentle voice speaking into my ear.

"Good morning…"

I turned to my right to see a pair of beautiful sapphire eyes and an angelic face looking at me. Melia. She was an amazing sight to wake up to. Her eyes, her smile, her hair, her wings, her nose, her skin…everything about her was beautiful. As she was looking at me with a soft and warm look on her face, she was gently running her fingers through my hair. The sensation of them gliding through my curls felt so heavenly.

"Good morning…" I said back softly. I reached out my hand to one of her wings, and gently stroked it.

"Ahhh…" Melia gave out a moan as my hand made contact. "A-Andrew…please…be gentle…my…wings are a bit…sensitive…"

Oh…my…God…the face she was making was soooooooo adorable! If I was dreaming, there's no way in hell I would ever want to wake up from this. Unable to resist the face she was making, I leaned into her face and planted a small kiss on her nose. Melia's face turned a bright shade of pink, and much to my surprise, she giggled a bit.

"Heehee, that tickled," she said.

"If it makes you laugh, I can do it some more," I offered.

This made Melia blush a little harder, but her smile stayed the same. "Whatever you do with me, I won't mind one bit." It probably took her a second to realize the implication of what she just said, cuz afterwards she followed up with, "I-I don't mean…well…actually I do…mean…um… _that_ …but…I…"

I couldn't help but chuckle at her flustered face. "Hey, it's alright. Like I said, I'm not ready for that yet either…but…when you feel like you are…" I didn't finish my sentence, for the rest was implied. Melia understood it and responded by lightly kissing my nose. Obviously I was unprepared for that, so I imagine my expression was that of surprise. It must have been, cuz Melia giggled at me. "So adorable…" she said.

"Sh-shut up. I am not-ah!" I suddenly felt someone gently blow into my ear.

"Oh yes you are," I heard Tyrea's voice say. "And very handsome too."

And the other sleeping angelic beauty awoke. "Morning, Ty."

"Good morning, darling," Tyrea replied to me, right before she started nibbling my ear.

"Mmmmmnnnhhh…" It would be a while before I got used to feeling these kinds of sensations.

"Did you sleep well?" Melia asked me.

"Aaaahhh…like I've never slept before."

Melia's smile grew as she nuzzled into my neck. "I'm glad."

I seriously just wanted to stay in that bed forever. Unfortunately that wasn't meant to be.

KNOCK KNOCK.

"Oi, Andrew! Are you up?" Sharla's voice. "Rise and shine, mate. Miqol's expecting us."

There was no way I was going to tell her that Melia and Tyrea where in here with me. "I am now," I responded. "Hang on a second, lemme get dressed first."

"Alright," she replied. "Oh, by the way, would you happen to know where Melia and Tyrea are? We can't seem to find them anywhere."

Ah crap. "Ummmm…I-"

"We spent the night with him," Tyrea spoke suddenly and calmly.

"TYREA!" both Melia and I yelled in embarrassment.

"What?" she replied. "We might as well be straight about it. I'm going to be by your side every second of the day, Andrew, even in battle. And I know you are two sister."

"Well…yes, I do want to do that but…" Melia replied rather meekly.

Sharla audibly sighed from the outside. "I suppose I should have seen this coming," she muttered, loud enough for me to pick up though.

"Hey, whoa, now before you start making any assumptions," I said. "I feel like I should tell you that nothing happened last night."

"Yet," Tyrea added.

"Sister!" Melia's shade of red just grew deeper. As for me, I just groaned.

"Well, whatever," Sharla continued. "Just make yourselves decent and get out here. We don't want to keep Miqol waiting."

"Alright, be there in a sec," I replied. I'm not sure which I was more freaked out over, the fact that we were running late, or the fact that my relationship with the two High Entia beauties might as well be out in the open.

…

"So…two lovely High Entia's, eh?" Sharla asked as we walked to Junks, while Melia and Tyrea were walking very close to me on both sides. "What exactly did you do to get that lucky?"

"Don't we have more important things to focus on?" I asked, desperately wanting to move to a different topic. "And personally, I have no idea what I did. I don't think I did anything."

"That's not true, Andrew," Melia spoke up. "You've done so much. For me, for my sister. For everyone. And you have never asked for anything in return. You are very generous and humble. Those are the signs of a true gentleman."

"Andrew, you are really under appreciative of yourself," Tyrea continued. "And while that is one of your many redeeming feats, it's heart breaking to see you so hard on yourself."

"Hardly anyone else is," I said. "Aside from my parents. I'd much rather be hard on myself then let others worry about me."

"Why?" Melia asked.

I sighed. "Ever since I graduated Middle school, the bar was always set pretty high for me. Despite my disability."

"Your what?" Tyrea asked.

"You used to be disabled?" Sharla asked with curiosity.

"Mentally, not physically," I said. "And I still am. Even with this new body of mine and these powers, a mental disability is something that you're born with. You can't just toss it on the streets like a bad habit."

"What sort of disability do you have?" Sharla asked.

"No idea what you call it in this dimension, but back home it's known as Asperger's syndrome, a type of autism."

"Ah, now that I know about," Sharla commented.

"What exactly is autism?" Melia asked.

"It's a type of mental disorder that affects how the person in question is able to process thought and information. At an early age symptoms of these can appear in spastic or hyperactive behavior, though that's not entirely uncommon in most young children, it tends to be more excessive, along with a short attention span for things in which the person deems uninteresting," Sharla explained.

"Ah, so that explains your excessive behavior at times," Tyrea deduced.

"Helps keep me from freaking out of the possibility that everyone might die if I don't give it two-hundred percent," I replied.

"And there you go again, being hard on yourself," Melia commented.

"Which brings me back to my topic," I continued. "I have overcome a lot of obstacles in my life, and because of that, my parents and my peers always expected me to blow them away. But, as I am constantly reminded, I'm not perfect. No matter how many times I try, sooner or later I end up falling short of the mark I aim for. And in doing so, I feel like end up disappointing everyone who believed in me. Even though they may try to make me feel better, it's nothing but a pity party, and I end up feeling worse. So if nobody's going to blame me, I'll blame myself. It's the only way for me to acknowledge that I fucked up."

There was a moment of silence. I guess the three ladies were trying to figure out how to respond to that. And as we were entering Junks, Melia spoke. "Is that your thought process whenever you think about…our father? Or my sister and I?"

I took a moment before I answered, "Yes."

No one had time to say anything in response before we reached Shulk and the rest of the gang. Didn't want to make things more awkward.

…

"Umm…" Shulk awkwardly uttered in front of Miqol. He had made his decision, but I guess he wasn't really sure how say it. Words, how do you use them?

"How are you?" Miqol asked. "Sleep well?"

"Sure did!" I answered, trying to break the awkward silence around us. After all the matter that we were talking about was…well, kinda heavy.

Shulk smiled at my attempt, recompiled himself and then spoke. "I wanted to…talk about your son."

The features on Miqol's face hardened a bit. "Have you made up your mind?"

"Yes," Shulk answered. "We agree with you. Egil must be stopped. But we can't act now."

"Why's that?" Miqol asked, a little puzzled.

"Your son's come up with a really nasty poison that turns everything on Bionis into dust upon contact," I said. "We've got an allied force back at Alcamoth that's reading a strike on the Mechonis, but the second they do, they'll be walking right into a trap. Now, we did manage to sabotage their Ether production systems, albeit by complete accident, but that was after we rudely introduced to the poison itself, and who knows how much they've been able to produced before hand."

"We have to go back and warn them," Shulk added. "Before it's too late."

"Oi, Andrew," Reyn asked. "Can't you use your…gate thingie to go back to Alcomoth and warn Kalian yourself?"

"I can," I answered. "But who knows how long just getting to talk to him is going to take. All of the higher ups at Alcamoth are probably on his ass about preparations in a meeting at this point."

"Well, you could ask someone who's organising the allied force to do it," a familiar voice suddenly spoke up. "That'd probably be easier."

We all turned around and wouldn't you know it, Dickson popped out of nowhere. Dunban had told me he had a habit of impeccable timing. I could see he wasn't kidding.

"Dickson?!" Shulk said in shock and gladness to see his father figure again. "What are you doing here?"

"How did you even know where to find us?" I asked.

"What do ya mean?" he replied. "This place is directly below the fortress. If you fell from up there, I figured you must've ended up here. And Bob's your uncle."

I didn't know who this "Bob" was…but I have heard a saying similar to that back in my world. I guess it's just a British phrase that means something like "common sense." But then again I've never been to England.

"You're looking well Dickson," Miqol said suddenly. That caught my ears. Along with everyone else's for sure.

"I see you're lookin' like your usual old self," Dickson replied.

"You know each other?" Dunban asked, taking the words right out of my mouth.

"Kinda," was Dickson's only reply.

"Kinda?" I repeated.

"I scratch his back, he scratches mine," Miqol clarified. "He tells us about the outside world, and we give him technology and information."

Oh so it was one of those mutual benefit relationships.

"Why did you keep that to yourself?" Dunban asked his old war pal. "That information is vital to all who fight Mechonis."

Immediately, I saw where this is going. "I…doubt the guys on Bionis wouldn't harbor any ill will to the Machina," I said. "I mean, come on, Dunban had a bit of an outburst when we met them. No offense."

"None taken."

"Who's to say the people won't react in a similar manner? And in the worst case scenario, what if all the Machina haters came down here with the sole purpose of finishing the job for good? The way I see it, the Machina cut themselves off from the world to prevent more pointless conflicts."

Dickson smiled at my response. "Smart kid."

"So they escaped to live in peace?" Melia asked. "Somewhere they wouldn't be seen."

"Makes sense," Tyrea input. "As someone who's lived in the shadows the majority of my life, no one will come looking for you if they don't know you exist."

"And a clever little princes and former assassin too," Dickson added. He turned to me. "You really know how to pick 'em, kid."

"Hey they picked me," I said defensively. "For reasons beyond my comprehension."

"Andy, Melly and Ty-Ty lovey dovey?" Riki asked curiously.

"RIKI!" The two High-Entia exclaimed.

I just groaned.

"Ahem," Dunban said, getting us back on track. "So, this is where you obtained all that stuff you brought back to Colony 9. I wondered where you were getting it from."

"I thought it was fine as long as it helped Shulk out at the lab," Dickson replied. "I guess the secret's out now. So, that weapon. How dangerous are we talkin' about?"

"Dangerous enough to kill the friggin' creator of the Monado in one fell swoop," I said.

"We haven't discovered why, but…it disintegrates anything it touches," Shulk said.

"Only if it's living tissue though," I added.

"Hmm…bet that would come in handy," Dickson muttered.

"Uh…what?" That came out of nowhere.

"Dickson!" Dunban exclaimed.

"I'm only jokin'." Dickson replied. Kind of a morbid sense of humor if you ask me. "Any way for now, just don't let any of it touch you."

"Dually noted," I said. "Oh wait. I'm not made of tissue anymore."

"Then you'll just have to make sure it doesn't touch us," Tyrea said.

"Didn't you absorb the ether and use it against the Xord Mechons?" I asked.

"Barely," Melia answered. "That liquid was very potent and difficult to manipulate. If we weren't as skilled at manipulating Ether as we are, it could have killed us."

Aaaannnd, there's the bombshell that was waiting to drop on me in this conversation. I am the worst bodyguard ever. But then again what would someone expect from someone who's entirely self taught in combat. Sucks to be me. Granted I have Melia and Tyrea but…yeah…

"We'll come up with something to counter it," Dickson continued. "Leave it with me and I'll keep you posted. You lot go and take care of that…Eagle or whatever his name is."

I was considering on correcting Dickson, but decided against it. It was kinda pointless. At the end of the day, he was our enemy. Might as well use it as an insult.

"If you take him down, the allied force might not even be needed."

"Easier said than done," I said. "Even with my abilities and my own Mechon on top of the, Egil is no joke. It's gonna take all of to bring him down. Weather we can make full use of the Monado or not. Speaking of which, how's that working for you, Shulk?"

Shulk looked like he was in deep thought about something.

"Um…dude? Earth to Shulk. Er, Bionis to Shulk. You still with us?"

"Hm?" Shulk looked up at hearing his name a few times. "Oh…uh, yeah…Let me think about it for a bit."

Shulk then turned and walked out of the room.

"Okay…so what's bugging him?" I asked to no one in particular.

"If I had to guess? Fiora." Reyn spoke.

"Oh right."

…

"Okay…looks like everything's good to go…"

I was making some last checks on what I was working for our journey. I felt it was going to come in handy. I tossed my little project back into the Timeless Void, and proceeded to head back to the others. Until I saw Shulk standing in front of the river, deep in thought. Poor guy. I definitely knew what he was feeling like.

"So, from how deep in thought you look, I'm guessing your still having trouble making a decision," I said as I walked over to the Monado Master.

"Andrew…it's…"

"Fiora. It's written all over their face," I said. "That was the whole point you wanted to out on the quest right? To avenge her death?"

Shulk nodded. "Yes."

"And by some miracle granted by whatever God there is in this world…if there even is a God…she's a live. Well, a miracle and Egil's twisted machinations, which, in Fiora's case, is a blessing in disguise. Ironic when you think about it. Egil's greatest creation gave you back your dear friend, and greatest ally. That's gonna come back to bite him. But…what about everything else? Because from what you and the others have told me, this little skirmish against the Mechon has gotten a lot bigger than you. Hell, it's gotten bigger than Bionis."

Shulk took a minute before answering. "Andrew, what are you fighting for?"

That took me by surprise. Now it was my turn to think. "Huh…well…not really sure…I tagged along because I wanted to help you guys out…but…this isn't my home…and all I really want to do is just get answers about myself…why my body changed the way it did…how I can get home…how I can save it…when you think about it…whatever happens in this world isn't really any of my concern…but I don't care that it's not my world…I care that it's the world that you live in…it's the world that Melia and Tyrea live in…it's the world that my friends live in. And as long as I'm here, I'll do whatever it takes to protect the world you live in. And to protect you guys as well."

Shulk smiled. "That…is a very noble reason to fight."

"Yeah well…my mom always told me to do what I felt the right thing was," I replied. "Y'know, according to Dickson, the allied force pretty quickly."

"Really?"

"Yup. For someone who didn't have a lot of confidence in his own diplomacy skills, Kallian's doing a pretty good job."

"Does he plan to launch an attack on Mechonis?"

"Oh yeah, but it looks like he's got something different in mind than what we originally thought. Dickson told me to give you a message from Kallian. And it's for me as well. When the allied force attacks, we don't need to join the fray. He wants us to take advantage of the chaos and do what needs to be done."

"Prince Kallian said that?"

"Yeah, wasn't expecting that either."

"And what did he want to tell you?"

I smiled. "He told me to keep his sisters safe, whatever I do."

Shulk smiled. "So he really is willing to accept Tyrea."

"Yeah. She'll definitely be happy. So, what's the game play, Shulk? Kallian wants to know."

"We're going to the Mechonis capital," he replied.

"To take down Egil?"

"I don't know. I definitely can't forgive the Mechon for what they've done. But…after listening to Miqol, I think there might be another way."

"You wanna talk it out with him huh? As much as I hope that works…he's the self-proclaimed leader of Mechonis. Not to mention what he did to the Monado. That'll be tough enough. That being said, we gotta throw everything we got at him if we're gonna win. We screw up, well…everyone get's screwed along with us. That goes double for you."

"We won't let Shulk die. Not ever!" a familiar female voice spoke up. The both of us turned around to see Fiora and the others walking towards us.

"Fiora!" Shulk exclaimed happily. "Are you okay to be walking around?"

"Yup!" she replied.

"I have to hand it to her," Sharla spoke. "That Linada's pretty good. And not just with machines. She's also quite familiar with organic physiology."

"You went to get the thing she needed to cure me, right?" Fiora asked Shulk. "I'm sorry I've caused all this hassle. But I'm fine now. I'll be by your side, fighting to protect you." She then turned to me. "No matter where we go, no matter how difficult it gets, Shulk will do the right thing. It doesn't matter how slim our chances, Shulk will always stick to the right path."

"And don't forget, it's because of Shulk that we're all here, fighting together," Dunban added. "I think that shows he has a strong character. Am I wrong, Andrew?"

I chuckled. "Well," I said. "When you put all that into perspective…it definitely says that you guys have a lot of faith in him. And for good reason too. Of course a lot of that may be luck, but hell, he hasn't steered us wrong so far. Why bet against a streek? Yo, Dickson!"

"Eh?" the old man replied.

"We're headed to the capital on Mechonis. Think you can let Kallian know that?"

"Yeah, leave it to me. I ain't gonna let anything happen to the colony. Those Mechon won't getaway with anything else."

…

Deep within the Mechon Factory of the Mechonis, Egil was brooding over the events at Galahad Fortress.

"Why did that Face betray me?" He asked aloud. "And that light…" The energy that came from the Nemesis unit seemed way too familiar. But… "No. That's not possible."

There was no way that _she_ of all people would side with _them_.

"It must have been remnants of memories from her former life that made me lose control." Egil deduced. "Memories…they are what limited the potential of Metal Face as well. I now know that I must erase every last trace of what they once were. All my servants need is the instinct to fight."

Egil then dove onto the memories of one of his other face units. "This Homs female. She was with the boy who wields the Monado and the boy in blue. The light of her memory…it shines strongly in this one." Egil then spoke into the intercom next to him. "Bring me Face 20814."

Another Faced Mechon appeared in the maintenance room before him. "So it this male." Egil then reflected on how Shulk and Andrew effortlessly cut through his forces of Mechon with ease. The boy, Shulk. And the outsider, Andrew. They continue to remain thorns in my side. I will enjoy watching my minion crush them both."

Egil then started to erase the memories of the Homs male in particular. "Be still, my servant. I see that your memories cause you much suffering."

The Mechon gave out a scream as the memories of the Homs began to die out.

" _Sharla…"_


	16. Chapter 14-The Mechonis Field

Chapter Fourteen-The Mechonis Field

 _I had strings, but now I'm free._

 _There are no strings on me._

"Are you going?" Miqol asked us as.

"Yup," I replied. "Might as well get ahead start of the allied force."

"Thank you for all of your help, Miqol," Shulk said.

"Oh not at all," he replied. "Any thing to help bring this conflict to an end."

We all turned to leave, but just as we were about to head out…

"Oh, one thing I forgot to mention," Miqol called out, causing us to turn around. "You might run into someone called Vanea in the capital. Just mention my name and she'll lend a hand."

"Vanea…" Fiora mumbled.

"Someone you know?" I asked her.

"No," she replied. "But…the name sounds familiar…"

"Is she a Machina as well?" Shulk asked.

"She's my daughter," Miqol replied. "She won't be far from Egil."

"Hold on," Dunban said. "You mean she's Egil sister?"

"You've got it, lad," Miqol answered.

"And…you say she can help us?" I asked, not really sure about this idea. I mean…if Egil's sister was helping her with his crap…wouldn't that mean she agrees with him?

"The girl doesn't want to hurt Egil, but she doesn't like what he's doing," Miqol explained.

Oh. One of those complicated positions.

"She should be a big help to you young 'uns," Miqol added.

"Ehhh." I was pondering about this. "Not really sure how that's gonna work but…can't hurt to try."

"We'll try and find her when we get there," Shulk said.

Miqol smiled at his response and nodded. "Good luck."

Linada then came walking over to Fiora. "Fiora, don't forget, I've only made temporary repairs. I think you should be able to fight, but don't overdo it. Come and see me the moment you experience any further system failure."

"I will," Fiora replied. "Thank you."

"In the meantime," Linada added. "I'm hoping I'll find a way to restore your former body."

"Whoa, wait a second!" I exclaimed, shocked at what she just said. Everyone else was too. "You can do that?!"

"Theoretically, it might be possible to use your genetic information to regenerate your missing organs," she explained. "Sorry. It's unfair for me to give you hope. To be honest, there's very little chance. But if there's even the slightest possibility, I have to try."

"Thank you, Linada!" Fiora said with a huge smile. Maybe it was false hope, but improbable is way better than impossible.

"Fiora…" Shulk said with a worried expression.

"Hey, c'mon lover boy," I said with a pat on his back. Think he might have turned a little red at the lover boy comment. "No worrying in the sun when there's work to be done. Time to shape up and ship out!"

Shulk quickly regained himself. "Right, let's go everyone!"

…

Off to the side, Dickson watched as the group made for the village entrance.

"Off ya go kids," he said aloud. "I'm counting on you both and the Monado. Shulk…Andrew…don't let me down."

…

"Andrew, take this." Linada handed me something that looked like some kind of key just before I was about to walk out with the others.

"What's this for?" I asked.

"There's a path leading from the base of Digit 2 to the foot of the Mechonis," she answered. "This is the security key to the door that seals the path. We who like in the village don't have any need for it, but it will be invaluable to you."

I chuckled. "Linada," I said. "I gotta be honest. You and your fellow Machina pals have been extremely awesome to us, even though you have no reason to. Seriously, that speaks leaps and bounds about your people. We're in your debt. I mean it."

"I believe the same could be said for you as well, Andrew," Linada said. "If what you say about your being from a different world is true, then you don't have much of a reason to defend either the Homs, Napon, High Entia, or even us. And yet you still do."

"Actually," I said as I turned to Melia and Tyrea. Riki and Reyn were pestering them about their relationship with me. Tyrea's face was bright pink while Melia's was beet red. Sharla was trying to get them to stop while Dunban, Shulk and Fiora were off to the side chuckling. "I have more than enough reason to help them now." I then turned back to Linada. "And you as well."

Linada smiled in response. "I can definitely see why the two High Entias fell for you."

I groaned, but with a smile. "I'm never gonna hear the end of that am I?"

"Possibly not," Linada replied with a bit of a chuckle. "Take good care of them on your journey."

"That's the idea," I replied. "Thanks again, Lind. Catch ya latter." I gave her a final wave, and then left through the village entrance.

It was time to head for the Mechonis.

It was time to put an end to Egil's machinations.

Once and for all.

…

"Okay, this is it," I said as we approached the Rotating Bulkhead. I took out the key and inserted it into the mechanism. The bulkhead's engine started with a roar, and the gate rotated around like clockwork gears until it provided a path for us to cross. We all started walking again, towards the towering mechanical giant. And the giant standing across from it.

"Bionis and Mechonis," Shulk said aloud.

"It's so different seeing them from this kind of perspective," Fiora added.

"We cannot see it from here," Melia spoke. "But our people are still fighting up there."

"Friends and family," Tyrea said. "In the battle field or not, they are all making some kind of contribution."

I thought back to what Miqol said to us about him still being around when the battle against the two titans was happening. "It's still kinda hard to believe that these two colossi were able to move, or even dueled each other to the death."

"I wonder how the Machina felt at the time," Shulk said.

"Must've been…horrible," Reyn answered for all of us.

"Probably scared out of their minds as well," I added. 

"Fear robs us of reason," Dunban spoke. "Out of fear we commit terrible atrocities and call them acts of self-preservation."

"Heh, a tale as old as time, even in my world," I said. "People fear what they don't understand and eliminate what they fear. Fear is contagious. So is hate and violence. Those emotions are what keep war either going or imminent."

"A never-ending circle of hatred," said Shulk.

"Perhaps that circle can be broken," Melia thought aloud.

"Yeah…" I agreed.

"Fear," Shulk said. "It must be what's driving this…what's made Egil act this way."

I thought about that for a few seconds. Shulk's theory was definitely credible, but from the way I heard Egil speak, it was far more than fear that was driving him. It was also hate. But hate for what? What did the inhabitants of Bionis ever do to him?

" _But he never forgave the Bionis for what it did."_

The words of Miqol kept echoing in my head. The way that he was speaking suggested that…the Bionis struck first. But if that was the case, why and how?

" _Zanza…"_

And then there was his mentioning of the purple giant. What role did he have in this aside from being the creator of the Monado? He's dead…right?

" _He must not be released!"_

The words of that same voice in my head. Whatever the source was, it definitely did not want Zanza released from Prison Island. But why was he there in the first place? Again, something didn't add up, and it was frustrating me to no end.

" _Focus, Andrew,"_ I told myself. _"One thing at a time."_ I then snapped my fingers and opened up a Time Gate to the Timeless Void. From it I grabbed my backpack, and a little something that I had built during my spare time in the Machina Village.

"Okay guys," I said. "Since we're a little pressed for time, I developed something that hopefully will help us."

Everyone gathered around me to see what I had made. "Is that…a Mechon Scouter?" Dunban asked with surprise in his voice.

"Yup," I replied. "Don't worry, it's not hostile. Not anymore, now that I've wiped every single programing algorithm that Egil made for this one and replaced them with my own. I rebuilt it using spare parts from the zeta ton of Mechons we destroyed and kept storing them in the Timeless void."

"So that's why you kept stockpiling Mechon wreckage from our fights," Tyrea concluded.

"Bingo," I replied. "Okay, let's see if this can work." I then pulled out a tablet I had made using parts from my busted computer and parts from the Mechon I wasted. I powered it on, and activated a program I called "Scouter."

"Alright little guy," I said to the hornet shaped Mechon. "Time to go to work." The Mechon activated, it's red eye now green, and flew up in the air. "Okay, now let's see what you've got Mechonis. Initiating scan."

A wide beam shot out of the eye of the Scouter and scanned the Mechonis from top to bottom. This went on for about ten seconds, until a detailed map of the entire Mechonis structure appeared on my tablet. "Bingo," I said.

"What just happened?" Reyn asked, confused.

"I just scanned the whole Mechonis, and got a map of the whole thing," I replied. "This way we'll how to get to the capital without wasting anymore time than we need to."

"That's…incredible!" Shulk exclaimed. "I didn't know you were an engineer as well!"

"I'm not," I replied. "Well, not by nature that is."

"I thought you said you lost all of that knowledge when you got thrown into the Timeless Void," Melia said.

"I did," I answered. "But ever since I came across the Time Eater…I…gained it back…somehow…I can't really explain it better than that…"

"Well, however you posses the knowledge is a mystery for another time," Dunban said. "For now, lets focus on getting to the capital. Andrew, Shulk, lead the way."

"Got it," Shulk said.

"Alrighty," I replied. "Let's go!"

…

We moved onward towards what was called the Mechonis Field, which was located inside the left leg of the Mechonis. Best way to describe it would be to say there were bronze gears, servos, gyros, pistons, and what have you in every nook and cranny.

"Geeze," I said, completely amazed by what I was looking at. "Danger Will Robinson."

"So this is the inside of the Mechonis," Sharla said as she looked around.

"Incredible…" Tyrea said in awe.

"Just how I imagined it. It's all totally mechanical," Reyn spoke. "It ain't gonna be easy getting up this thing."

"Egil is at the top," Shulk said.

"And in the meantime, we've got a giant bulkhead door and a crap ton of Mechon standing between us," I said. "We follow this conveyor belt forward and then hitch a few elevator rides. After that we'll come back outside again, and then re-enter for a few more lifts and another bulkhead, and then we'll be coming up to the…uh…Central Factory…assuming I'm reading this writing correctly."

"Well then," Fiora said. "Let's get moving."

"Friends go, go!" Riki exclaimed.

…

"YAH!" I cut down another Mechon in front of me and watched it explode into two halves. "Shulk, how much longer is getting that bulkhead open gonna take?"

"Just a little bit longer!" Shulk shouted. "I've…almost….got it…."

"Shulk, behind you!" Reyn shouted. A Mechon was approaching behind Shulk, but I guess Shulk had a vision about it, because without even looking behind him, he grabbed the Monado, activated it, flipped it in reverse grip, and the jabbed it in to the Mechon.

"Thanks, Reyn!" Shulk shouted.

BANG BANG BANG BANG! SLASH SLASH SLASH! Sharla was shooting down every airborne Mechon in sight with Tyrea flying around and following in suite. Reyn and Fiora stayed close to Shulk to make sure he wasn't bothered. Melia, Riki, Dunban and I were just running around, cutting whatever Mechon got too close to us. I was staying as close as I could to Melia. For obvious reasons.

"RAZOR WIND!" Melia shouted as blades of wind burst forward to slice and dice every Mechon within range. Took out a good number of them too.

"Just a few more left!" Dunban said. "Keep at it!"

"Done!" Shulk said. "The bulkhead is opening!"

"Alright then, change of plans," Dunban said. "Cut down the ones that matter, and run!"

"You heard the man!" I shouted the rest of the Mechon I was facing, reading a Chaos Shot. "Playtime is over. We got a hot date with your boss!" I then blasted them into dust and quickly turned to the others. "Let's put some distance from these guys! TIME GATE!" I snapped my fingers and opened a gate to the entrance of the bulkhead since I could see it clear as day from the activation mechanism. Every single one of us quickly jumped through the gate and booked it into the night air from there.

…

"Hah…hah…hah…did…we manage to lose them?" Melia asked me with her breath panting.

I quickly looked at my tablet. "Scouter's not picking up any pursuers," I replied. "We're in the clear. For now at least."

"Whoa!" Reyn exclaimed. "Don't look down."

I could do everything but not look. We had ended up back outside of the leg of the Mechonis and were currently overlooking the fallen arm of the Mechonis and the bridge we took to get here. We were at a considerable height for sure.

"Hey, Andrew, does your thing-a-ma-jig tell us where we are right now?" Reyn asked. "Other than high up?"

"Well, from the looks of it…we're somewhere around the thigh area," I replied.

"The thigh?" Reyn repeated. "You mean we ain't even half way there yet?"

"Stop moaning about it," Shulk spoke up. "Look. We can make camp over there and rest for a bit."

Shulk pointed to a corner next to what appeared to be a giant cooling fan.

…

While everyone was working on polishing their weapons and whatnot, I was probably doing the least productive thing: Playing on my 3DS. Yup, had that in my backpack too. The only thing electronic that managed to survive in my backpack by some miracle, along with my PSP, Wii, PS3, and all of their respective games. How big of a backpack do I have you ask? Big. Very big. Okay full disclosure, it's not so much a backpack as it is a luggage bag.

"Hello there handsome," a familiar seductive voice said to me.

I looked up to see two angelic beauties. "Hey girls," I replied. "What's up?"

"Umm," Melia asked with a rather curious look in her eyes. "What do you have in your hands?"

"Oh this? Remember me mentioning something called video games?"

The both of them nodded.

"Well this is one example of what those are where I come from," I said. "Wanna see?"

"I'm interested," Tyrea said as she sat down next to me. Melia followed too, still blushing at how close she was to me, I guess.

The game I was currently playing was Azure Striker Gunvolt. It's one of my favs. Currently I was playing Carrera's stage since he's one of my favorite bosses in the game.

As I was playing it, the two girls were mesmerized by what they were seeing. The visuals, the sound, the music, they had never seen anything like it.

"Amazing…" Melia whispered.

"What exactly is this?" Tyrea asked with curiosity.

"It's a type of entertainment from my world," I replied. "I usually play them for fun, or when I get bored."

"There's more of these?" Melia asked.

"Yup. I've got a whole library of them stashed in my bag."

The two girls took a look at the large black bag that was sitting next to me. Melia curiously took a look inside my bag and gasped at what she saw.

"Goodness! All of these machines look so heavy!" She exclaimed.

"Individually, not really, but, cluttered all together in that bag, along with their respective games and wires, yeah they're pretty heavy. Or…were heavy until my endurance got an upgrade," I replied. I then noticed I was reaching Carrera. "Aw, yeah, it's Boss time!"

"Boss time?" Tyrea repeated.

"The big bad guy at the end of a stage," I explained. "Video game terminology. They're the best things I like about video games."

"So if you beat him, than you win?" She asked.

"Only this stage. Eventually I'll have to fight him again. I'm only truly victorious in this game once I beat the final boss."

"Final boss," Tyrea repeated. "Just saying that brings a feeling of intimidation."

"As it should," I replied. "To say that final bosses are tough is an understatement. Or at least they're supposed to be. There are a few I've face that have been lacking."

"You say that like you've faced over a dozen of those," Tyrea said. "Are there more than one in this."

"Nah. Well actually for this game in particular, there's two. There's the final boss, and then what I like to call the final final boss." Tyrea giggled at that. "What?" I asked with a chuckle.

"Nothing, it's just…your way with words is sometimes…adorable."

I turned a bright red. "U-umm…" And it was then that I noticed I died in the game. "Damn it."

"What?"

"What's wrong?" Melia asked as she looked over her shoulder. She was still rummaging through my bag. I normally don't like people doing that, well people I don't know at least, but Melia and Tyrea were an exception.

"Nothing, I just died."

"But…no one attacked us," Melia said with a confused look.

"No, not in actual life, in this game I'm playing,"

"Then how come you're still playing?" Tyrea asked.

"Cuz I have unlimited lives."

Tyrea giggled, "Well with you that seems plausible, but does the person your controlling have immortality?"

"Officially in the story of the game, no, but one of the various rules of video games is to defy any and all type of reality for the sake of playability."

Tyrea raised an eyebrow in confusion. "Hm?"

"Simply put, I, as the player have infinite lives in this particular game. Meaning I can fight this guy as many times as I need to until I win."

"Sounds easy enough," Tyrea asked.

"Yeah, you'd think so, but the problem with dying an indefinite amount of times in a video game, or in this game at least, you either have to start the stage from the beginning again, or from the last checkpoint you reached in the stage, or just restart the boss fight from when you first encountered him or her, and lets say the number of times you die is ten, it can get kind of aggravating after a bit to the point of pure frustration, and then to out right rage."

Tyrea just gave me a blank stare. "Umm…"

"Okay, let's say under some bizarre circumstance, you got stuck repeating the same day over and over again every time you woke up, and nobody but you noticed it. How would you feel?"

"Same day as in the same people you meet in same order, same greetings and conversations, and events occurring at the exact same time?" Melia asked, still browsing around my bag.

"Yup," replied.

"That sounds like it would be a mixture of frustration and fury," Melia said back.

"Yup, and that's sometimes how it feels to die over and over again in a video game. But the plus side is to that you remember where everything is, what you're going to come across, when things are going to happen, and then devise a plan to effectively get over all obstacles."

"So it's basically a game of progressing from point A to point B, inevitably failing at least once, which then leads to learning from said failures, and then devising a strategy for eventual victory," Tyrea summarized.

"Uh, yeah that's basically it in a nutshell," I said. "Alright, let's try this again."

"Can I give it a try?" Tyrea asked me.

"Sure, if you're prepared to loose a few times," I said with a grin. "Don't worry, you'll get the hang of it eventually. I shall instruct you."

And so Tyrea played for a bit, with me guiding her on how to play. She did die a few times, but eventually she got the hang of it to the point where she was decent. She was really having a lot of fun. She did ask me why the text was in English but the voices weren't. I told her, aside from the ancient language of the High Entias in this world, my world has several thousand known spoken languages. The one she was hearing was Japanese, which, now that I thought about it, I could understand what the characters were saying now for some reason. It was kinda like the same thing on Prison Island and when I was reading the inscriptions after looking at the same type of characters on that plaque in the audience chamber. I still couldn't figure out why that was. Nonetheless, she was very surprised to learn that my world had many ways of speaking.

As for Melia, she came across a few gory titles in my bag. She asked why people would like that kind of entertainment. I asked her if there were any books that were rather graphic in terms of literature. Melia said yes, since she had a lot of books to while she lived her sheltered life. I answered by saying it's basically the same thing, except you get to see it with your eyes rather than just imagine it in your mind. Weather it's an inherit trait, or slowly gained over time, people in my world are attracted to fantasy like violence, be it hardcore or not, and they want to experience a sense or danger, but from a safe distance. Both of the girls could had a pretty good idea of what I meant, as they had both read stories about fictional brave nights single handedly fighting a war, only trusting those close to them, and then eventually blaming themselves for when they got killed. As I think about it…that's not too far from the situation I was in at the time.

Eventually, both of them got tired and fell asleep right next to me. I wasn't too far behind them.

…

We woke up early the next morning.

"We should get moving," Dunban said. "We don't have time to hang around."

"Yeah," Shulk agreed. "The longer we wait, the closer Egil gets to victory."

"Reyn, did you rest well?" Sharla asked.

"Yeah!" the Colony 9 Defense Force soldier replied. "I feel great!"

"Okay," I said, reading off of Scouter. "Looks like we're about head back into the Mechonis. Just a little bit further and we'll be at the Central Factory."

"Got it," Shulk replied. "Let's go!"

We all started to move out. But then something made me stop. It was a presence. Another life force. But… it was different…from the Homs, Napon, High Entia, and even the Machina. However…if I concentrated just a little bit…the life force presences…was strikingly similar to Fiora…but…that would mean…

I noticed Dunban stopped too. He must've had a similar sense of uneasiness. We both looked at each other, sending some kind of mental signal that we were thinking the same thing, then behind us. It was quick, but I briefly saw something large and mechanical jump out of our sight. If it had the same presence as Fiora then…was it a Face?

"Dun-dun? Andy? You okay?" Riki asked us.

"Oh, it's nothing," Dunban replied to the Napon warrior, not wanting to worry anyone. "Just my imagination."

We then started walking again. But not before Dunban addressed me.

"You sensed something, didn't you?" he asked.

"Yeah," I replied. "Someone's definitely watching us. Probably a Face. Should we do something about it?"

Dunban thought this over for a bit. "For the time being let's let it tread water. If it confronts us, we'll deal with it then."

…

It actually took us a little longer than I thought to reach the first Zebral Bulkhead, mostly because the Mechon drones wouldn't stop crawling out of the woodwork. It was already noon by the time we got there. And everyone was pretty tuckered out by that time. Fiora was the first to keel over. As soon as she did, Shulk caught her, and everyone else ran over to her side. I don't know if it was from exhaustion or another error in her system.

"Are you okay?" Shulk asked with worry in his voice.

"She looks very tired," Melia observed.

"Well, getting up here wasn't exactly a cakewalk," I said. "Out of all of us, Fiora's probably the one that's most susceptible to exhaustion, what with her body and all."

"Maybe she should get rest?" Tyrea asked.

Fiora smiled reassuringly. "Thank you," she said. "But really, I'm okay."

"No," her older brother stated, concerned for her safety. "We'll find a safe place to rest. We've hardly stopped since we left the village."

Yeah, we had only stopped once, and only for about five hours.

"Riki tired too," Riki said. "Riki tummy rumble."

"Yeah, I'm with you," Reyn agreed.

I then just sensed a presence. _"Uh oh."_

"Time to park our-"

"Get down!" Shulk suddenly yelled, both interrupting Reyn and taking the words out of my mouth.

No sooner than he gave out the warning, a massive explosion went off a few inches behind Shulk. He would have been pulverized had he not already started to run. The ground shook from the impact, causing us to stumble around a bit. I may not have eardrums anymore, but godDAMN IT, that was loud!

"Where the hell did that come from?!" I yelled over the noise.

"A Mechon assault!" Dunban shouted as we all drew our weapons. "Can anyone see them?!"

"Shulk, you had another vision?" Reyn asked. "Nice one!"

"No," Shulk replied. "It wasn't."

"Wait, what?" I said, raising my eyebrow.

"Shulk?" Fiora asked worriedly.

"What do you mean by that?" Tyrea asked.

Unfortunately those were questions for later. Right at that moment, a huge Mechon touched down in front of us. It had jade green colored armor with goldenrod plating, two massive guns pointing upward in it's shoulders, and an exoskeleton-looking face.

"You did well to evade me," it spoke in a calm baritone voice. Just what you'd expect from he who wields the Monado."

Sharla gasped as it spoke. "That voice!"

"It's a Faced Mechon!" Dunban stated.

I stood for a second and focused on the life source that might be inside. I got my answer.

"So you're the one that's been tailing us for a while huh?" I remarked.

The Faced Mechon looked at me. "You knew I was watching you?" he asked, a bit puzzled.

"Let's just say…I sensed a presence that wasn't any of us," I answered.

"Ah, now I understand," he replied. "You're the boy in blue. The unknown variable. The wild card that has the potential to be just as dangerous as the Monado, if not more so."

"Dangerous?" I replied. "I'm not sure weather to call that an insult or some sort of morbid compliment. But hey, if the enemy deems me as a threat, that just means I'm on the right track."

"Oi, Andrew!" Reyn called. "Can you sense something? Is there someone inside there?"

"If the feeling I'm getting is what I think it is, then yeah, someone's piloting that thing," I replied. "Shulk, what's the game plan? I doubt this guy's gonna let us through without a fight. So how do we do this?"

Shulk thought about this for a bit. "We fight," he replied. "But don't kill him."

"I thought you might say that," Reyn said.

"An admirable notion," the Mechon replied. "But I, Jade Face, will not permit you a single step forward." He then flew backwards all the way to the exit of the bulkhead, which was roughly about the sixe of a football field.

"Umm…why is he all the way back there?" I said, confused.

"Everyone! Take cover behind a wall!" Shulk yelled.

"What, why? What's he gonna-"

"LINEAR LASER!"

I was interrupted by the sound of something electric being discharged. I turned towards the source and saw two lighting bolts headed straight for me. "OH SHIT!" I quickly tried jump out of the way and to the others…and I almost made it, but the shots tore through my legs in mid jump. I yelled in pain as the impact of the shots sent me flying forward. I landed face first on the ground with the others. "Agh! Ahhhh goddamn it! My legs!" I yelled, half in pain and half making a Spongebob reference.

"Andrew!" Melia cried out. "Are you alright?!"

"Ah…yeah, yeah, I'm good," I said, my legs regenerating. "Just getting my self back together, as it were."

"That Faced Mechon is targeting us from afar," Shulk said. "If we take too many hits from those cannons, we're done for."

"Great, how are we supposed to get close to him?" Reyn asked. "He'll pick us off before we can even get to where he's standing."

Another shot impacted on the wall we were hiding behind. "It seems like Jade Face's cannons take a bit to recharge after he fires them," Shulk observed. "We can use that time to weave to and from the walls until we get to him."

"That won't be easy," Dunban input as he was looking from the side of the wall. "There's a few Mechon Scouts lying in wait along the path. If one of them senses us, they'll call for back up. We've already got enough to worry about with those shots coming at us."

BLAM! Another shot ricochet off the wall.

"Hey, I've got an idea," I said, getting back on my newly formed legs. "Tyrea, you and I are the only ones that can fly long distances."

Tyrea immediately saw where I was going with this. "A distraction!"

"Bingo," I replied. "Tyrea and I will fly around Jade Face and hopefully take some of the heat off you guys. That way you can make your way to us, while dealing with any Mechon resistance without having to worry about being shot down."

"That's actually a good plan," Shulk stated.

"But, Andrew, you've only flown a few times," Melia said with a worried look on her face. "Will you be alright?"

"Well it's not like anything that he throws at me is actually going to kill me," I replied with a smirk. "Besides I've got an expert with me on this."

"Indeed," Tyrea replied. "I'll be with you the entire time."

"Then let's get going," Shulk said. "Time is of the essence."

"Alrighty, Ty! Let's give our little friend a couple of moving targets!" I donned my wings and jumped off the ground, taking to the air.

"Right behind you, lovely," Tyrea replied and followed right after me.

Immediately we went full speed towards Jade Face, throwing ranged attacks at him, with my Chaos Shots and Tyrea's Ether spheres. This definitely caught Jade Face off guard, and caused him to stagger, if only for a little bit. But as soon after that he started to return fire with his cannons.

"A Homs that can fly," Jade Face spoke, a little curious. "Or rather…not a Homs…but something else…QUICK CANNON!"

ZHAP!

His shots were not easy to dodge, especially with how close we were to him. Tyrea and I had to keep our distance and prioritized ranged attacks. But that didn't keep Jade Face from dashing after us and trying to, and I kid you not, swat us down with his hands. Like goddamn files. Y'know how some sci-fi movies depict giant characters moving slowly, most likely due to their mass? Yeah, I found that out to be a load of malarky in these past few days. Jade Face's movements were about as swift as his shots, lunging at us with is fists and, trying to grab us a few times too. It also didn't help that we were limited in using our ranged attacks, and we had to hold due to the possibility of there being a Homs operating the Mechon. I tried to get in close and attack the Mechon's face, maybe try to impair his vision a bit, but every time I tried that, he would point his cannons at point blank range. I still wasn't sure if I could survive complete disintegration of my body, but I wasn't ready to find out either. So I had to back off from that tactic. Tyrea, being more skilled than I am at flying, was able to dodge Jade Face's advances with some ease. I on the other hand…well, I got lucky a few times, maybe because of the adrenaline rush I get whenever I enter battle, buuuuut…it didn't stay that way for long. At one point, while I was dodging, Jade Face managed to zap one of my wings, causeing me to fumble a bit and loose altitude. This left me open for Jade Face to grab me.

"Though you remain a mystery to us, the possibility of you being just as dangerous as the Monado is apparent, given your abilities," he said to me. "I heard that you can survive being impaled and having your limbs blown clean off." He pointed one of his cannons at me. "Let's see what happens when there's nothing left of you."

"Let him go!" Tyrea yelled angrily as she dove straight towards Jade Face.

"Tyrea! Stop!" I yelled.

Too late.

Jade Face took a shot at Tyrea with one of his cannons. Tyrea dodged it, but the light spectrum from the shot must've distracted her for a fraction of a second, cuz Jade Face grabbed her right after that.

"I'm curious…" he spoke. "Which one should I crush first?"

I could feel the pressure tightening around my body as his fingers started to clamp around me tighter.

"How would one of you react if the other were to die before your eyes?" Jade face then eyed me. "Perhaps I should continue to crush you, just to see if you can die."

"No!" Tyrea screamed. "Leave him be! If you so much as scratch his skin, I'll rip you apart piece by piece!"

Jade Face then looked at Tyrea. "Hmm…a rather interesting…and emotional response…considering your predicament. Maybe I should start with you, just so I can be rid of your voice.

Tyrea then started to grunt in pain with a horrified look on her face. Jade Face was slowly tightening her grip on her.

"No, stop!" I screamed. "I'm the one you want! I'm the threat you need to eliminate right?! Leave her out of this! Please!"

"Andrew, don't!" Tyrea yelled back at me. "What…what if you can't survived being crushed into paste?! What if you don't come back from this?! What…what would I do? Melia…and I…we gave our hearts to you…you can't just leave us after that! What about your home?!"

"Ahhh.." Jade face responded. "Now I see. You two share a bond. Feelings for each other. The girl it is then."

Tyrea started to scream in agony as Jade Face's fist started to tighten.

"NO!" I screamed, as I desperately tried to force myself out of Jade Face's grasp.

"Let my sister and lover go!" Melia yelled as she sent a blast of lightning at Jade Face's face. This took him by surprise and caused him to stagger backwards dropping both of us onto the ground. Melia, Dunban, and Sharla then ran over to us probably to make sure we were okay. Well…the former two did. Sharla…ran toward Jade Face.

"Sharla!" Reyn called.

"Gadolt!" Sharla shouted. "It's you, isn't it?! Please answer me! Let me see you!"

Gadolt? Wait…why did that name sound familiar? I didn't really think more on that, as now I was seeking Jade Face's pilot step out. Sure enough, he was a Homs converted into a Face Unit. He was decked out in jade green Mechon armor, with gold trimming running along various parts of his body. Part of the skin on his torso was visible, and so was his face, part of which was marred thanks to a cyborgesque right eye. He had platinum blonde hair to top it all off.

"Gadolt!" Sharla said as she started to burst into tears. "I knew you were alive…"

Oh! Stupid me, how could I forget? Gadolt was Sharla's missing fiancé from Colony 6! I completely forgot that he existed thanks to all the crazy crap we had going on!

"Gadolt?!" Reyn exclaimed, probably coming to the same conclusion that I did.

"Wait," Shulk said, thinking for a moment. "Isn't that Sharla's boyfriend?"

"I, uh…I'm guessing yeah…it is…" I replied, still trying to both processes what I was seeing, and recovering from an episode of shock. I guess even after getting tossed into the Timeless Void, I still hadn't gotten used to this…seriously it's just one surprise after another.

Gadolt pointed a golden plated finger to the Monado. "The destruction of the Monado…" he said in a monotone, emotionless voice. Then he pointed to me. "And the mysterious boy…"

Dunban swung his sword, ready to charge at Gadolt just for the mentioning of Shulk and I, but Reyn called him off with his hand, and shook his head. Good idea, considering this is probably one hell of a bombshell for Sharla. Chances are she wouldn't take this well, I mean come on, it's her friggin' fiancé for Christ sake. Why wouldn't she be shocked?

"That is the will of Lord Egil…" Gadolt continued.

"Gadolt?!" Sharla exclaimed, shocked at what she was hearing.

"What do you mean, 'Lord?'" Shulk asked with a confused look.

" _Lord Egil?"_ I thought. _"That doesn't sound right…"_ From what I remember Sharla telling me about him, he despised the Mechon with a burning passion, and yet here he was, alive and well, _and_ referring to what should be his enemy as his master?

"What's Egil done to you?" Shulk yelled once again.

"What's wrong, Gadolt?!" Sharla cried. "Why would you say that?! Speak to me, Gadolt!"

And then it hit me. "Brainwashing…Goddamn he would really go that far?"

"Brain…washing…?" Melia asked. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, the Gadolt we're talking to right now isn't the Gadolt Sharla used to know. I think Egil's controlling his mind somehow." It would definitely explain his words and his tone. The altered Homs are mostly machine, and machines can be fine tuned for better performance. I doubted Face Units were any different.

"This world is in disarray," Gadolt spoke. "I must eliminate the cause of this disorder, along with the Wild Card, and restore the world to its original form. That is my duty. Nay, the will of the world!"

Yup. Definitely brainwashing.

"Now the time has come," he continued. "The time to restore order!"

Jade Face suddenly began to stand up once more. _"Remote control! Shit I forgot about that!"_ The twin cannons on his shoulders suddenly started to charge up for a massive blast.

"Gadolt! Stop!" Sharla shouted.

"Uhh, I don't think he's listening, Sharla!" I yelled.

"Andrew! Get us out of here!" Dunban yelled.

"Got i-"

"You won't escape!" Gadolt yelled as he signaled Jade Face to fire. The giant sphere of energy headed straight for us.

"FUCK!" I yelled in frustration. The last thing I remember after that was a familiar power coming from Fiora.

…

Egil looked upon the smoldering crater that Jade Face had created through a holographic screen. Using the Homs sniper's affection for the one named Gadolt against the group turned out to be a resounding success. However, he was not convinced that his enemies were finished just yet. After all, they had survived much worse. And even if the wielder of the Monado did get slain, there was still the other boy to worry about. No doubt he would seek revenge. But these concerns would come later. If they did manage to survive, Jade Face and the rest of the Mechons could handle them. In the meantime…

"Lady Meyneth," Egil spoke to seemingly no one in particular. "It is not far off now. A world in which there is no need for fear. The hour draws near. Our will shall soon be done."

He then reflected upon his dear friend, Arglas, possessed by Zanza, wielding the Monado, and sending hordes of Telethia to decimate the Mechonis inhabitants.

"But first there is still the matter of the Monado. And the boy in blue," he continued. "Our victory can only be assured if we destroy both of them before it is too late. I sense your existence…Zanza. The hour is upon us. Your time has come!"

The room which he was in started to glow a bright gold. A glow that could be seen all the way outside from the Mechonis's eye.

AN: Okay, sorry I haven't been updating this much in the past. Had a lot going on with my new job, a class I still had to take to get my degree, and on top of that, searching for a job in my career field. But fret not, I'm still going through with this. STAY TUNED!

Oh wait, in response to a reviewer whose name I will not reveal, I understand why you think my OC is bad, and you may be right. But you must realize that I have planned this out for a LONG time, and have a general idea where the development of Andrew's abilities will take him. He DOES have weaknesses and he CAN be killed, but these are elements that have not been introduced…yet. They will come, just be patient. As for his personality…let's be honest, who do we like more, an awkward guy that likes to tries to stay on the positive side of things, or an ass hole with major family and trust issues? Think about that for bit.


	17. Notice of Discontinuation and Rewrite

So, I know some of you may be upset to hear this but...after looking back at my writing, and taking a look at some of my reviews...I have decided to rewrite Boundless. I was making shit up as I went along and to me, it's really cringeworthy. I'm not that great of a writer, and seeing how this is my first fanfiction I ever wrote, it was bound to happen at some point. This Boundless series I have in mind is going to be huge. Like spanning 20 books. And I want to make it good. Really good. Now, one of you had made an assumption about my OC being a self-insert. Well...sigh...you're right. Andrew Hindle is actually my name. Now...I know that a lot of self-insert stories are frowned upon in this community. And I understand the reasons why they are frowned upon. But there is a fine line between understanding...and agreeing. The whole point of fanfiction is to explore all the possible what if scenarios in our favorite stories. What would happen if this character didn't die? What would happen if these two worlds collided? What would happen if I was there? We've all been there at least once in our lives. If you have problems with this sort of fic...well, that's your problem and not mine. Sorry to be blunt, but that's really the only way I can get my points across. Now, I understand if you don't like self inserts. Depending on how their written they can make the author seem like they have an ego problem. And that's the really big reason I've kept the truth about my OC under wraps because developing an ego problem is one of my biggest fears in life. And I was worried if I told the truth about that, people would actually think that about me. And as I'm writting this, I'm beginning to think I may or may not have some small anxiety issues. But I digress. I am rewriting this fic from the ground up, and it's still going to be a self-insert. Take that for what you will, I change how you feel. However, in regards to reviews...if you have nothing nice to say, don't say it. Constructive criticism is welcome. Malice is not. And if I do see malice...there will be consequences. Well...except for anonymous reviewers of course. Sorry if I sound like an ass hole with that last part, but I gotta say what I gotta say. In the meantime, a lot of people seem to like my RWBY Plays fic. So I will be working more on that. Along with the spirit of music, and a Black Rock Shooter fic that I've been working on for the past few months. STAY TUNED!


	18. Rewrite Update

So it's been like what, a year since I discontinued this? Well good news is, I'm almost done rewriting the prologue. And it has been an absolute goddamn NIGHTMARE to write. I kept getting writters block at how the events should flow, what the characters should say, etc. This has not been easy for me. But the good news is, the story will restart, and will continue onwards, and it will be SO much better than the last! Someone said that I should start out in the Makna Forest, and funny thing is, I actually had considered that before it was mentioned to me. I figure the bond between Andrew and Melia would make more sense that way. Thank you so much for the positive feedback you all have given me! STAY TUNED!


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